The G Chaser Diaries
by BDM
Summary: G-Chasers follow monsters such as Godzilla to gather data and thrills. These are the short tales of England-born chaser Alan Tyler and his various encounters. Companion pieces to CII's Mechagodzilla X series.
1. An Eye for an Eye

**Author's Notes**

Before I start this series, there are a number of matters that I should make apparent.

First of all, I wrote the G-Chaser series years ago for a couple of Godzilla fan-sites under a different name, but I felt that it was time that they found a larger audience. If anyone who read these stories before happens to be reading these, you may notice a few edits in parts that I wasn't happy with looking back at them. It's been really strange to come back to these stories I wrote as many as five years ago and read them again; I hope they don't embarrass me too much.

You may also be wondering where the first G-Chaser story I ever wrote is. Frankly speaking, that first story now makes me visibly cringe to read it. Until I find the time to subject it to a heavy re-write, that one is staying off the site.

Finally, and most importantly of all, these stories take place within the same universe as CII's Kiryuu stories (Mechagodzilla X series, Halo Different series, etc.), so all characters, references etc. to the series that I borrowed have been used with her permission. She has been awesome to work with, and her input has been invaluable.

Thanks for your time, now commence your reading.

**An Eye for an Eye**

To many people, four months wouldn't seem like a very long span of time. However, to Alan Tyler they felt like the longest four months of his life. For the nightmares still came to him, night after night; the vivid memories of the horrifying events in London that he himself had been caught up in. That creature, with those evil eyes staring right at him, filled with murderous intent... It made him shudder just thinking about it

At first, Alan wondered what it was that awoke him, then he remembered a shrill ringing sound coming from the phone on the nightstand. Trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes, he switched on a bedside lamp and looked at the clock. It was five to five in the morning here in downtown Tokyo, and Alan irritably wondered who could be calling him at that hour of the morning. His first instinct was to roll over and go back to sleep, but in the end picked up the receiver, while his free hand scratched his long brown hair.

"Moshi-moshi?" he said.

"Alan, it's me," spoke the voice of Dr. Yuji Shinoda, Alan's contact in the Godzilla Prediction Network. Shinoda sounded half-asleep himself.

"Shinoda?" Alan asked, dragging himself further into the waking world; he had the feeling about what was to come if Shinoda had called him. "What's up?"

"I've just received word from my contacts in Yokohama," Shinoda answered, "Seems they've picked up Gojira heading towards Tateyama."

Tateyama... That wasn't far from here. Alan knew he could easily get there in an hour or two, provided he didn't fall asleep behind the handlebars.

"I'm, er... I'm really sorry to wake you," Shinoda continued, his voice full of apology, "I just thought you'd be interested, considering you missed the action last time."

"Yeah..." Alan mumbled. This would be a good chance to refresh his skills, given that he hadn't G-Chased for a good few months now. "Thanks for the heads-up."

"No problem," Shinoda replied. "You'd better get going, you have about an hour before Gojira makes landfall. Also, no doubt the Mekagojira will turn up at the site. Be very careful, okay?"

"Don't worry," Alan said, smirking, feeling more awake now than he did before, "I'm not scared of him. I want to see what Chrome Crotch can do."

Alan could hear Shinoda burst out laughing, before quickly trying to quieten down. Alan figured that Io wouldn't be too happy if her father awoke her at this ungodly hour of the morning. He managed to calm himself down enough to say "See you later," to Alan before hanging up.

Knowing he had no time to waste, Alan climbed out of bed and crossed his apartment, quickly pulling on a black T-shirt and blue jeans. At this time of year he knew it would be cold, so he gathered up his old black jacket as well as his camera. He didn't see the point of taking either his Desert Eagle or leather bullwhip this time; he highly doubted any unscrupulous rivals would be up and about at this hour. As well as going to see Godzilla and getting the photos, he had never seen the Utah Foundation's Mechagodzilla in action and was sort of curious as to what it could do. Going by what Shinoda had said, he didn't like the idea of getting caught in the blast of that Absolute Zero cannon; apparently it had taken Shinoda an hour to dig his car out of the sheet of ice after the distillery had just been caught on the edge of the blast wave.

Alan was a G-Chaser, or Godzilla Chaser, who spent most of his life following up leads on any giant monsters that happened to surface. Of course, the most prominent one was Godzilla, though the possibility of others hadn't been discounted. Chasers had a number of reasons for doing what they did. Some were freelance workers, like Alan, who obtained photos for the press and data for any number of scientific groups such as the GPN. Others did it purely for the adrenaline rush, the danger and the excitement, which Alan had to admit was a big part of its appeal. While a wiser man would keep his distance from Godzilla and other creatures like him, Alan knew it was possible to practically touch him and live to tell the tale. Eighteen years of this dangerous line of work had taught him many lessons.

A short time later, he was speeding out of Tokyo city limits, along the fastest route he could think of to Tateyama. It was still dark by this time, and the roads were devoid of traffic; a perfect opportunity to go as fast as he could to get there on time. Alan knew he'd probably end up breaking several Japanese speed limits to get there on time, but he didn't care. It would feel good to really put his motorbike through its paces. Maybe this G-Chase would help him take his mind off things.

He had never been able to forget the events of four months ago, when a colossal three-headed dragon had attacked his home country of England. Dubbed 'Monster Zero' by the newspapers after the attack, the monster had managed to wipe out most of England in less than 24 hours. The British Army had been caught completely unaware; they'd ignored the Godzilla matter for so long, and thus were not prepared for monster attacks. Millions had died, killed by this menace from another world. That day England truly had been all alone against that creature. If that moth creature hadn't appeared to bail them out, Monster Zero could easily have extended his carnage elsewhere. The worst of it was that, despite the fact that the British government were still so keen to please them, no other countries, not even the United States, had sent aid.

Instead the American government had been paying someone to build a giant Godzilla robot to fight a creature that, unlike Monster Zero, didn't purposefully kill human beings. They had only acknowledged everything that happened in England as some kind of fakery or trickery. Though it seemed impossible to cover up something like Monster Zero's attack, somehow they had managed it. The worst of it was that the British government seemed keen to play along, trying to pass off the incident as a terrorist attack, with the whole monster aspect being spoken of as if it was someone's idea of a practical joke. If he was being honest with himself, Alan felt pretty resentful towards the Utah Foundation's Mechagodzilla. To him, the machine represented everything he hated about America at present, more specifically for the gross hypocrisy that the cover-up displayed.

Alan sighed internally. _Get a grip_, he thought, _you can't keep going to pieces because of what happened. Right now, just focus on surviving this damned chase._ So he continued on his way along the coastal roads. He was thankful that he didn't come across any other vehicles on his way.

Alan had been cross-country a few times during his time as a G-Chaser, but the landscape heading towards Tateyama wasn't as impressive as some of the vistas he'd seen further up north. He didn't catch many details anyway, since he was touching on 70mph much of the way there. He liked driving along the coastal roads thoug; the sea-breeze helped to wake him up a bit more.

At last, after almost an hour on the road, Alan reached Tateyama. The town itself was pretty small; not much bigger than Alan's old hometown, in fact. However, there was a large, recently-built naval port on the outskirts, complete with industrial facilities, so Alan had no doubts that would be Godzilla's destination. He continued to drive near to the coast. Finally, he spotted a likely spot for Godzilla to make landfall on the beach, so he parked the motorcycle there - close to the beach but far enough away to stay out of harm's way - and waited for things to happen.

They happened fast.

For the all-too familiar sounds of sirens began to fill the area, not a few minutes after Alan's arrival. All around him, Alan could hear the sounds of the people evacuating the area, alert of the danger that was approaching them. Klaxons flared in the nearby factories, and several shouts could be heard as the workers evacuated. The base and factories were soon empty.

Looking back out towards the water, Alan spotted a large wave, rolling quickly towards the shore. As the sky started to lighten off to the East, he noticed as the wave gradually dispersed revealing the familiar dorsal spines, moving rapidly towards the shore.

At last, as the titanic reptile known to the world as Godzilla began to emerge from the waters, a smile spread across Alan's face. For the first time in four months, he felt he was truly back at home. He watched Godzilla start to wade towards the shore, the sea foam washing all around him as he strode through the waves. Alan raised his camera, and began to take his photos; he always liked the 'surfacing' photos of Godzilla's arrival.

As he watched, Godzilla started to walk onto the beach, his huge feet sinking into the soft sand. However, Alan noticed that he didn't actually start to head for the factories straight away. Instead, he stopped on the beach for a moment, looking all around him, almost as if waiting for something. Alan soon saw why Godzilla was being so cautious. His eyes narrowed as he saw the new arrival, rocketing towards the area, landing on the beach quite close to Godzilla.

The gigantic Mechagodzilla had arrived, the early morning light glinting off the machine's armour. Now that he was seeing it in-person, he couldn't deny that it was an impressive-looking creation, all shiny and sleek-looking; quite handsome in some weird kind of way. At last, Alan was getting a good look at the machine, standing there, the only being seemingly able to fight Godzilla.

_Provided it doesn't break down again_, Alan thought. He started to take photos of the towering machine, as he saw the two Godzillas look intently at each other, almost like some kind of silent exchange was going on.

Alan remembered reading the news stories and hearing the rumours, but finally he was going to see what this thing could do. As he watched, Godzilla suddenly released his loud, trumpet-like call; clearly a challenge. Alan was under the impression that Godzilla had not come to feed at all; he was looking for revenge against the creature that had caused him so much pain. Alan noticed that the Mechagodzilla wasn't as heavily armed as in the photos he'd seen. He knew about the maser cannons hidden inside the mouth of the machine though, and saw a pair of arm cannons as well. As the two creatures suddenly got into what looked like combat poses, Alan understood that they both intended to fight hand-to-hand.

Watching, and ready with the camera, Alan saw Godzilla make the first charge, going into what looked like some kind of shoulder tackle_. Inventive tactics for a giant monster_, Alan thought, as he saw Mechagodzilla stand firm, almost as if he'd expected Godzilla to try something like this. As he watched, Mechagodzilla suddenly side-stepped the move, grabbing Godzilla and suddenly kneeing him in the waist. Alan winced as he saw Godzilla stagger back, winded but not in any major peril. Throughout the fight, Alan caught all the most painful-looking moves through the camera lenses.

The area was getting lighter, but the weather seemed to be fairly cloudy, so the rising sun remained hidden, keeping the area semi-dark throughout. Alan kept looking, transfixed at this battle. Godzilla versus Godzilla... He never thought he'd see the day.

As Godzilla staggered back from the kick, Mechagodzilla suddenly advanced on him, landing a vicious uppercut to Godzilla's jaw. Alan was pretty sure he heard the jaw crack as Godzilla was lifted off his feet for a second, before crashing down onto the sand. Mechagodzilla strode over, seemingly preparing to stamp on Godzilla, but the reptile suddenly lashed out with his tail, tripping the machine up. Mechagodzilla managed to save himself though, suddenly hovering over the sand for a second.

Alan recalled reading about Chrysler's involvement in the Mechagodzilla project. A bit of further investigation had revealed that Chrysler had been responsible for the world's first hover car, replacing wheels with 'gravity generators' – though he could not remember exactly what they were called - so that vehicles hovered a couple of feet above the road. He could imagine this was not something affordable to the average man in the street. Perhaps the Utah Foundation had taken this technology a step further, since, upon zooming into Mechagodzilla's feet with the camera lens, he couldn't see any signs of actual jets being used.

Alan watched as Godzilla picked itself up, shaking the sand off himself. At the same time Mechagodzilla opened his mouth wide, firing two maser beams from within; this looked like his own version of Godzilla's own atomic fire. Godzilla staggered back again, shrieking in agony, as the masers pierced his hide. As Alan watched, he could already see the wounds closing up on him.

He could hear Godzilla's snorts, as he grimaced, absorbing the pain that was being caused to him by those dazzling lasers. Godzilla suddenly half-turned, his long tail suddenly whipping out, trying to swat Mechagodzilla. The robot caught the tail though, and suddenly pulled sharply on it. Godzilla shrieked in agony once again as he was pulled towards the mecha, before suddenly being grabbed in a chokehold.

_That was inventive_, Alan thought, as he continued to take the photos. Mechagodzilla continued to hold Godzilla like this for a moment, starting to drag Godzilla back towards the water. However, it seemed Godzilla wasn't having any of that, for he suddenly swung his foot behind him, tripping up Mechagodzilla and catching him off-balance. Godzilla quickly used the opportunity to suddenly throw Mechagodzilla over his shoulder. There was a loud crash as the mecha landed painfully on the sand, the shockwave almost knocking Alan off his feet. The mecha wasn't stunned for long though, as he suddenly rolled away as Godzilla tried to stomp on his metal face. Alan couldn't help shouting "Ha!" at this; clearly Godzilla was not going to let his metallic doppelganger get the better of him!

Mechagodzilla quickly picked himself up, but by this time Godzilla had been bought enough time to charge up his atomic breath. His dorsal spikes glowed blue, and waves of heat came out of Godzilla's mouth, coupled with a pulsating blue glow. As Mechagodzilla charged at him again, Godzilla opened fire, expelling the built-up energy in a massive beam of blue fire.

However, it seemed Mechagodzilla had been prepared for this, for as he raised his arm a shield apparently made of pure energy suddenly formed. The blast impacted against the shield, stopping Mechagodzilla in his tracks but not hurting him. As the blast was cut off, both of the Godzillas charged straight at each other, slamming into each other. For a couple of minutes the pair were locked in a deadly embrace, almost like some kind of bizarre sumo match. The conjoined fighters shook each other about, each trying to throw the other out into the ocean. Alan couldn't help smirking.

_Who needs organised sports?_ he thought. _Give me monsters beating the living shit out of each other any day._

Then suddenly, Godzilla gave Mechagodzilla a particularly violent push, seperating the pair. However, Godzilla was still holding onto the robot's right arm. There was a loud crack, and Alan realised that something must've snapped on the robot. Then, with a loud roar and clearly with a lot of effort, Godzilla suddenly ripped Mechagodzilla's right arm clean away!

Alan gasped in surprise, snapping the camera like crazy. Even he hadn't thought Godzilla had it in him. He watched Godzilla stagger back, seemingly startled by his own show of force, while Mechagodzilla released a loud, mettalic roar, his left hand trying to cover the hole left behind. Maybe Alan was imagining it, but he thought the machine looked in pure agony.

However, any sympathy he might've had was quickly pushed away, and he smirked with a grim satisfaction. It was almost like Godzilla really wanted to send a message to the Utah Foundation, as ridiculous as the notion sounded to Alan. As he looked at the machine, he caught sight of a few thick, silver tentacles poking out of the hole where the arm used to be. He figured this must be the bio-syntech, the synthetic muscle tissue that was part of Mechagodzilla's construction.

Alan looked across to Godzilla, who seemed to have frozen, looking intently at the robotic arm clutched in his hands. He could see the fingers still twitching slighty, the bio-syntech tentacles flapping about uselessly, before the whole arm seemed to shut down. However, as Alan watched, Godzilla opened his eyes wide in shock. He slowly tilted his head up to look at Mechagodzilla, still clutching the space where the right arm once was. Godzilla's expression was difficult to read; it looked like some kind of genuine shock, perhaps even fear.

As Mechagodzilla raised his head to look, Godzilla suddenly started backing away from the robot, almost as if he was surrendering. Alan watched in disbelief as Godzilla turned, and slowly started heading back out towards the ocean, carrying the arm with him. Curiously, Mechagodzilla didn't go after him. He just stood there, watching the reptile leave, making his way back out to see as the sun began to rise completely.

Alan couldn't believe it. Godzilla had definitely had Mechagodzilla on the run there, why had he not finished the robot off? What was it about that arm that had got Godzilla so spooked? None of it made any sense to Alan. He snarled; if there was one thing he hated, it was not knowing. That felt even worse to him than knowing of bad news. He continued to take a few last photos, of Godzilla leaving, the wounded Mechagodzilla watching him go. Was it a victory for Godzilla, or one for Mechagodzilla? The machine had been wounded, but Godzilla had retreated. Alan sighed, and continued to watch the scene; he figured he had enough photos now. Mentally he decided to call it a tie.

A lingering doubt still remained. All the way through that fight, Mechagodzilla himself seemed to be holding back. Alan had heard about the destructive power of this machine, of how it had reduced Tokyo to rubble four months ago. Yet this power was never demonstrated all through the fight with Godzilla. It was almost as if Mechagodzilla's aim wasn't to actually kill Godzilla, but just to drive him back. That was weird. Wasn't he built to kill Godzilla? What Alan was seeing directly contradicted that. So many questions and so few answers.

As he stood there lost in thought, he heard the sound of a motorcycle engine approaching him, followed by a voice:

"Aww crap!"

Alan turned around, watching someone approach him on a Yamaha dirtbike, soon stopping beside him. The person was a young Chinese man, wearing a brown hoodie and faded blue jeans. He was looking at the scene with a look of enormous disappointment, as if Christmas had just been cancelled.

"Aw, man!" he said, sounding really annoyed, "Don't tell me I missed the whole thing?! I'll never forgive my contacts for not telling me sooner!"

He broke off as he looked at Alan. His eyes went wide as he saw Alan, and he began suttering incoherently.

"You're..." he stammered. "Those contact lenses! You're him! You're Ryuu no Me!"

It was then that Alan recognised the man as Kei Yun Kyung, a rookie G-Chaser who Alan met a few months ago. Clearly it seemed Kei recognised him from before; not a difficult thing to do, when Alan took his reptilian-looking eyes into account. The G-Chasing 'tag' he used translated roughly into English as 'Dragon's Eye', which seemed appropriate to him, given his gold-coloured eyes with slits for pupils.

"Remember me?" Kei said excitedly, "You helped me and my friends a few months back, in that G-Chase. I've trained myself to be tougher since then. Do I look different?"

Alan decided not to answer that. Clearly Kei hadn't changed one bit; he was still the exciteable little man he was when Alan met him. He didn't say anything, instead he turned back towards the shore, watching as Mechagodzilla started his journey back to wherever he was housed. Kei watched with him.

"Amazing thing, isn't it?" he said as Mechagodzilla began to leave the area. "I still can't believe somebody was able to make that thing."

"I can," Alan snorted, causing Kei to look at him with surprise. "I remember reading about something that happened... oh, about 30 years ago, where someone set a Godzilla robot on Japan, only for the real deal to smash him. I wouldn't be surprised if that's where the arseholes at the Utah Foundation got the idea."

"I... I didn't know that," Kei replied.

"Well, now you do," Alan replied simply.

As he saw Mechagodzilla fade away into the distance, Alan decided he'd better get going back to Tokyo. He turned away, Kei moving up to him.

"I noticed Mechagodzilla didn't have his arm," Kei said, "What happened?"

"Oh," Alan replied, casually, "it just got ripped off by Godzilla." Kei's eyes widened even further.

"Godzilla ripped his arm off?!" he said, astounded, "That's incredible! Did you get any pictures?"

Alan didn't like just showing people his photos on the spot. He started to rev up his Kawasaki's engine, preparing to leave.

"Check the Network later, and you'll see," Alan said.

He was referring to the G-Chaser network; a privately funded website where G-Chasers posted photos, articles and videos of their chases, as well as trading information on the forum. Alan had his own gallery and frequently posted on the site. Indeed, the Network was one of the few websites that still had his photos of the London incident freely viewable on them. It was one place he knew wouldn't pass off his photos as fakes.

"Man, I'm a huge fan of your work!" Kei said excitedly, "I wanna become a strong G-Chaser like you. You're my role model now!"

Alan rolled his eyes. This was all he needed; a rabid fanboy. He didn't ask for fame - he was just doing a job - and yet people seemed to always plaster him with praise for his photos. He found the whole thing rather scary.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" Kei asked, his voice becoming much more serious. Alan had the feeling he knew what was coming next.

"Did it really happen? I mean... you... and that dragon... in London..."

Kei sounded really nervous for asking, but it sounded to Alan like he really wanted to know. Alan sighed; if this kid really wanted to know, who was he to not say anything to one of the few people who believed him? On the Network, all of the G-Chasers had shown their support when they'd heard of the cover-up. He decided he might as well let Kei indulge in his fantasies for a moment.

"Buy me a coffee and I'll tell you all about it," he said.

"Fair deal," Kei said, smiling. "I know a place that does some good breakfasts. I'm starving after getting up so early!"

With that, the two of them revved up their motorcycle engines, and started their journey back. All around them, the citizens of Tateyama started to come back into the area in their masses. Alan felt they'd missed a hell of a show.


	2. Ghost in the Shell

**Ghost in the Shell**

It's amazing how some things have a way of sneaking up on you and catching you out, despite every precaution you take.

Alan Tyler, who had succeeded in undertaking some genuinely dangerous pursuits of the creature known as Godzilla, was starting to feel that way now. In the space of a year, he'd been involved in many events that were beyond his control, that all of his experience of following the radioactive dinosaur had left him unprepared for.

The first event was an unknown invader's attack on the city of London. Alan had barely survived an encounter with this monster and taken the photos as evidence, only for the American and British governments to cover up the whole story and make every effort to discredit him. Alan still harboured bitter feelings towards both governments. Now every time he went G-Chasing, he had to face a constant reminder of this bitterness. For every time he went to follow Godzilla, he also had run-ins with the Mechagodzilla, created by the medical conglomerate the Utah Foundation of Bio-Organic Research. The first time it had been pretty amusing, as he'd witnessed Godzilla rip his mechanical counterpart's arm off; every other time since had been considerably less thrilling.

Now he was feeling annoyed that he'd missed some great chances. He had been out in Malaysia on holiday when another Mechagodzilla - rumoured to have been built by aliens, no less - had tried to impersonate Godzilla and destroy Japan, mirroring events he'd heard about stemming from 1974. He found no limit to the amount of irony this presented; one robotic clone of Godzilla had been destroyed by another one. Looked like he knew where the Utah Foundation got the idea anyway.

Now, several long months after that incident, he was out here on a day trip to Yokohama. He felt like getting out of the main bustle of Tokyo for a day, even if Yokohama wasn't that far from it. He just needed to be somewhere - anywhere - away from that city for today. He'd gotten sick of waiting with no news on Godzilla.

_Just think Alan_, he thought, _you might end up having to get a real job_.

He didn't know why he G-Chased half the time anymore. He couldn't get the exclusives he liked, due to the non-violent nature of the encounters between the two Godzillas; normally he'd be the only one who dared to get close enough. He sighed, and shook himself. He hated having such thoughts in his head. Maybe it was time he headed abroad again for a while.

He rested at the roadside, quite near to the coast near Yokohama. He leaned on his black Kawasaki, taking in the seabreeze. Partly because he had been raised in a seaside town, he'd always liked looking out over the ocean; it was always a reminder that there were new horizons, new places that he had yet to see with his own eyes. It was quite breezy, and every now and then Alan pulled a lock of hair away from his cat-like eyes; he'd let it grow over the last year, and now it was longer than usual and normally tied into a ponytail. Every now and then he had the feeling that today was just a touch too quiet. Maybe if he thought that really hard, something might happen.

It was then that he heard a shrill beeping, coming from his jacket pocket. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his mobile phone, opening up the new text message he'd just received. He hated using text messaging, but he guessed he had no choice in the matter. The message had obviously been typed in a hurry;

_'Goji headed for Yokohama. ETA 10 mins. Shinoda.'_

It looked like Yuji Shinoda, Alan's contact in the Godzilla Prediction Network and the main source of his tip-offs on Godzilla's movements, had finally braved the use of the text messenger on his mobile. No doubt his daughter Io had schooled him in its uses. He looked at the ETA and wondered how Godzilla's movements hadn't been picked up sooner. He wasn't hearing any sirens go off. Then again, this was a fairly remote part of the country. There was nothing of interest here, so why was Godzilla coming? Nevertheless, a G-Chase was a G-Chase, even if he had to deal with Chrome Crotch while he was at it.

Hauling himself back onto his motorbike, he revved the engine and sped off down the road at top speed. He made for the coast, knowing he could still get a few pictures of Godzilla surfacing in the bay. Upon breaking away from the main road, and taking a small side road to reach the coast, he slowed down, keeping a sharp eye out towards the water for any sign of Godzilla surfacing.

Along this route, glancing back inland, he could make out a square-shaped, four-storey office building, almost exactly between this lane and the main road. Close by these, he saw a few large smoke stacks, pumping out steam into the atmosphere. He wondered who on Earth would want to have something like this in such a remote place. That was probably the most interesting thing he saw there; the rest was extremely remote, surely no good reason for Godzilla to come here.

A couple of minutes later though, as he heard a sudden rushing of sea-spray, all thoughts of how remote the location was were driven from his mind. He looked out towards the ocean, just in time to spot a large reptilian head come bursting out of the water, followed by an enormous reptilian body. The monster known as Godzilla was now approaching the shore, wading through the sea water, soon arriving at the beach.

Alan pulled out his camera and pointed it towards the towering titan. He was about to take a couple of photos when he suddenly heard a hissing sound coming from behind him. With a start, Alan spun round, just in time to see a large metallic head, shaped to look like a reptile's, was rising out of the ground, followed by an enormous metallic body. Alan made every effort to remember where he was, for as he raised his camera to take photos, he realised he now knew where the Utah Foundation kept its most prized possession.

As Alan snapped photos of the two arrivals, he heard Godzilla release his trumpet-like roar, as he slowly lumbered towards the titanic machine known as Mechagodzilla. Alan couldn't tell whether this was a challenge, but the first big surprise of the day for him came when Mechagodzilla answered with its own roar. It was a strange, rather unnerving mix of Godzilla's own call and a curious metallic, almost alien sound. Alan wished he'd brought a tape recorder, but he knew a recording would never be able to capture the sheer strangeness of what he was hearing. These were sounds that would stay with him for many years to come, even if the only evidence he had of it was his own ears.

He watched Godzilla slowly approach Mechagodzilla, cocking his head to one side, rather like some kind of curious dog. Alan got the feeling that there wasn't going to be any fights yet again. Indeed, as he watched, he saw Mechagodzilla stick his hands out, palms facing Godzilla, almost like some kind of gesture of surrender. Alan let a slight chuckle escape his throat as he saw Godzilla repeat the action; from this angle, it looked like the two were on the verge of playing Pattycake. He caught a few photos of this peculiar sight, a grin spreading on his face.

He watched Godzilla moving closer to Mechagodzilla, and heard thick inhaling sounds; Godzilla was clearly sniffing and examining his metallic counterpart. The machine itself didn't seem to mind though, because it remained docile as Godzilla walked around him, examining every inch of his frame. This was an extraordinary sight for Alan; he'd never known Godzilla to stick around this long after Mechagodzilla had shown up.

An insane theory came into his head; was Mechagodzilla actually the reason Godzilla had come here? Had he come here to take a look at his metallic rival? If so, why was Mechagodzilla letting him? Alan shook himself; this theory sounded too crazy even to his ears. He continued to watch as Godzilla pushed down on Mechagodzilla's dorsal spikes, prompting Mechagodzilla to step forward slightly and turn slowly round. To Alan, Godzilla seemed to be 'cautiously curious'.

Alan then jumped slightly, as he suddenly heard a barking sound coming from Godzilla, followed by a series of growls mixed in with a few short, slightly high-pitched screeches. Alan had never known Godzilla to make those kinds of noises; that screeching sound seemed surprisingly soft, despite its high pitch. He jumped slightly as he suddenly heard Mechagodzilla start to mimic the sounds. These were the weirdest sounds Alan had ever heard any living creature make. This was an incredible discovery, if it was what he thought it was; some kind of language. It was pretty similar to how he'd heard some animals communicate in the wild, but he'd never expected these two to get to talking. He saw Godzilla cock his head to one side again, obviously confused by this machine's attempts to speak.

He then saw Mechagodzilla slump down onto the ground, almost as if out of exhaustion. Alan snapped away, capturing this strangely human motion through the lens. He saw Godzilla kneel down next to the machine, making that strange high-pitched screech again; Alan could only reasonably describe it as 'chirping', though he wasn't sure that was entirely accurate. Then he saw Godzilla do something completely unexpected. He saw the big lizard slowly lift his claw and pat Mechagodzilla on the back; a universal sign of wanting to comfort someone. Alan was astounded that this creature could make such a human action, and he snapped away like crazy to capture it. His mouth hung open when he saw Mechagodzilla extend his hand, Godzilla doing the same, then Mechagodzilla taking hold of Godzilla's hand and giving an unmistakeable handshake.

Alan could scarcely believe his eyes. He continued to stand rooted to the spot as the hands parted ways, and Godzilla leaned in, reaching up to feel around Mechagodzilla's face and snout. He saw Mechagodzilla scoot back slightly, holding up his index finger. Curious as to this new turn of events, Alan zoomed in with the lens, determined to capture all that he could. As he watched, he saw Mechagodzilla reach behind his head, and there was a sudden snapping sound. Alan felt himself go numb as he watched Mechagodzilla suddenly lift his face clean away!

It was a mask! As Alan saw what was under the mask, his eyes widened and he very nearly shouted out loud.

For where he had expected the inner workings of the machine to be revealed, what he actually saw was a reptilian face, identical to Godzilla's own in every way, right down to the same slate-grey skin colour. Actually, when Alan thought about it, the face of this being somehow looked older to him, more experienced than Godzilla somehow. The amber eyes - those very same ones that Alan himself had - shone from that face, glinting in the sunshine. A myriad of metallic green bio-syntech tentacles sprouted from the top of the head, making Mechagodzilla look like he had dreadlocks. Perhaps the most bizarre feature of all though was the snout; the mouth was twisted into a smile, something that looked more human than anything else.

Of all the things that Alan had prepared himself for, there was no way Alan could've prepared himself for this. He wanted to say something - anything - but felt the words die in his throat. There was no way he could describe it. He wanted to believe that his eyes were playing tricks on him, but the photos he had taken didn't lie; Godzilla's face really was on that thing's head.

He saw Mechagodzilla stand up slowly, Godzilla soon doing the same. Godzilla saw the strange helmet lying on the ground, and stooped down to pick it up. He watched Godzilla examine it for a moment, before placing the helmet on his own head. Although Alan found this a very peculiar sight, and was still taking photos, he didn't even chuckle; the sudden shock of seeing Mechagodzilla's true face seemed to have taken all the energy out of him. Alan continued to watch though. He was too entranced, too fascinated by this new development to leave now. He saw the helmet fall off Godzilla's face, landing with a dull thud on the ground below. Godzilla picked the helm up again, and handed it to Mechagodzilla, who placed it back down on the ground.

Then Godzilla started pulling on Mechagodzilla's arm, rather like a child wanting to show something interesting to his parents. Mechagodzilla stooped down for a moment, picking up his helmet and placing it back over that face that made him seem alive, despite the fact he was a machine. Actually, when he thought about it, 'machine' seemed too tacky a word now to describe him.

Godzilla grabbed Mechagodzilla's arm again, pulling him down towards the water. However, as Mechagodzilla reached the water's edge he suddenly roared, pulling his hand away and shaking his head. Godzilla didn't seem angry with this though, just disappointed. As the Mechagodzilla turned away and started to head back inland, Godzilla gave a roar. Maybe Alan was imagining it, but this roar sounded full of an unspeakable sorrow. It would be a sound that was to haunt Alan for the rest of his life. Why would Godzilla feel such sorrow though?

As he watched, Mechagodzilla slowly turned back to Godzilla, placing a metal claw on his shoulder. Alan spotted the mecha making odd gestures, like some kind of sign language. Whatever was being said, Godzilla seemed to show signs of understanding, since he nodded and rumbled.

Mechagodzilla then placed his claw on Godzilla's shoulder again, and then made such a strange gesture. The mecha touched Godzilla's forehead with his snout, before slowly pulling away. Alan took more photos, only dimly aware that he'd probably filled an entire memory card with photos from this day. So many strange things had been shown, and he couldn't explain any of them. As he watched, Mechagodzilla turned away again, striding back towards the area Alan had seen him rise out of. Godzilla watched him for a moment, before letting loose a sad sigh, before turning round and heading ocean-bound again. It was all over.

Sensing that this was all he was going to see for today, he revved up the motorbike engine and sped away from the area. He turned back for a second to see Mechagodzilla being lowered back underground, like something out of an episode of Thunderbirds, before he headed back along the lane and back onto the main road. He made a mental note of the location of that office building he'd seen earlier, since it wasn't that far from where he'd seen the mecha rise out of the ground.

Once he was sure he was well clear of the area, Alan stopped, pulling over on the roadside, running over everything in his mind. For some time now, he'd suspected something was odd about the Utah Foundation's creation, ever since noticing how Godzilla reacted when he ripped off the mecha's arm, in fact. He'd never expected what he had witnessed today though. That face inparticular had truly unnerved him. How had the Utah Foundation being able to do that? Was this why Godzilla acted the way he did around Mechagodzilla? Was it even remotely possible that Godzilla considered Mechagodzilla to be a friend, perhaps even some kind of brother?

A thousand theories ran through Alan's head, each less likely than the last. He found himself completely stumped. He could not explain what he had seen at all, except that instead of being angry at not knowing, he was now scared. What was the Utah Foundation hiding? Did the American or Japanese governments know about this? In any case, Alan only knew for sure that now he knew, with the photos to prove it. The other members of the G-Chaser Network would never believe this, and strangely he found himself not caring if he was believed or not. He knew what he saw, and no amount of squealing would change that, just like with the incident in London.

As he revved the motorbike up again and sped down the road back to Tokyo, a selfish desire to find out more about the Mechagodzilla overcame him. Something about that machine was very strange, and it seemed obvious that the Utah Foundation were hiding something. Whatever secrets they had to hide, Alan intended to find out himself. He'd make sure of it.

***

A week later, Alan was back on the road, heading back in the direction of that office building he'd spotted. He was now positive that he'd seen Mechagodzilla come out of the ground somewhere near there, and he wanted to investigate. He had not brought his camera with him, or his weapons; what was the point of taking photos of this? He could still rely on his memory, since he knew where to start looking.

Heading down the main road near Yokohama, when he was sure he was in the right area, he spotted a small road turning off from the main road towards the coast. He started to head further down the side road, and soon he saw the office building, with the smoke stacks nearby. The road led directly to it.

Upon finally reaching the other end of the road, Alan was right at the foot of the building. Standing four storeys tall and square-shaped, there wasn't anything really remarkable about it. It looked just like any other. The fact that it was so out-of-the-way had to mean something though. A sign nearby said;

_Utah Foundation of Bio-Organic Research: Yokohama Branch Office._

Alan was surprised to find this office here. He'd always assumed it would be in Tokyo, like every other major company's office building. His curiosity was now increasingly getting the better of him. Then again, he reasoned it would be a bit much to expect the Mechagodzilla to burst out of a city street.

In looking for a parking space in the large car park, he noticed that the western 'lot', as the Americans called them, was completely empty. What he could just make out in there were several small orange cones, arranged around the perimeter of a large depression right in the middle of the parking area. A few guards were also in that area, one or two of them looking in Alan's direction. Alan decided not to start a fight with those guys, and instead moved on until he found a parking space close to the building. Luckily the guards didn't pay him any more attention.

Alan had the funny idea he could take a pretty good guess at what was in that parking area though. He knew better than to shout about it though. Switching off the bike's engine, he climbed off and headed towards the building. Now that he thought about it, if this really was where the Mechagodzilla was housed, then they must need a lot of power to run the base. That would explain the smoke-stacks; they likely had an especially large generator somewhere.

The doors at the entrance to the building slid open as Alan approached them. He stepped inside into a fairly spacious lobby/reception area. A mauve carpet had been laid in this area, with the walls painted in an off-white colour. A number of people were walking through the area, from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds, usually carrying some bundle or another of papers. Alan could take it as a given that these were members of the staff here. The Utah Foundation specialised in using bio-syntech to replace lost limbs; it wouldn't surprise him to see a few doctors hanging about.

There were several comfortable-looking chairs here, as well as a coffee machine, and a small display case with donuts and cookies laid out. No doubt people waiting for appointments could help themselves to these rather American concessions while they were here. Alan helped himself to a coffee from the machine while he was here; he hadn't had one all morning, and he wanted one even if it was brewed ten days ago. After spending a few moments getting his coffee, he figured he may as well do what he came here to do. He walked up to the reception desk. A young Japanese woman approached him, greeting him cheerfully, in English surprisingly enough;

"Welcome to the Utah Foundation Yokohama Office. How can I help you?"

"Yeah, hi," Alan replied, "I'm just enquiring about your bio-syntech research."

"Ah, yes," the receptionist replied, producing a leaflet from a shelf underneath the desk. Alan started to thumb through it - it was basically one big advert for the Utah Foundation's 'prized possession'.

"Our research has come on in leaps and bounds over the last few years," the receptionist continued, "We believe that one day we may even be able to replace certain organs with bio-syntech technology, which will help tremendously for those who cannot receive a transplant." Alan didn't really listen. There was only one reason he was interested in the bio-syntech, and it had nothing to do with organ transplants.

"I've read in the papers that your Mechagodzilla unit is partly constructed using bio-syntech," he asked, trying to make his tone sound politely curious.

"Oh, yes," the receptionist continued, keeping her friendly demeanour; obviously this was something the Foundation had no qualms sharing with the world. "Kiryuu is the most advanced machine ever constructed, and the bio-syntech has allowed him to increase his functionality and durability."

There was a slight pause after that. Alan looked a bit confused at what the receptionist had just said, not just the stuff about the bio-syntech, but also what he'd heard her call that thing.

"Oh," the receptionist said, anticipating Alan's next query, "Kiryuu's the name we have given Mechagodzilla. We felt it would give that extra level of class and dignity to give our greatest creation a proper name." Kiryuu roughly translated as 'Machine Dragon'. Alan thought it strange to give something like that a name, but it sounded appropriate somehow.

He decided to take a quick look around the area. Thanking the receptionist, he walked around the lobby, spotting several pictures on the walls. Most of these depicted a number of happy patients, with doctors stood near them with broad smiles on their faces. The pictures showed that the Foundation had treated a wide variety of patients; white, black, even a few Asians. Underneath each of them he saw a little tagline reading, _"Bio-syntech - the future of prosthesis."_ Alan got the impression that this was one company that seemed a little in love with itself.

The one picture to really catch his attention was a photo of 'Kiryuu', this time fully armed and helmeted, standing outside, the sunshine reflecting brightly off his armour. Alan could have given them a much better picture if he had been paid for it. The tagline underneath the picture read _"The future of monster extermination"_. Alan couldn't help shaking his head; that statement sounded really stupid, especially after all that he'd witnessed just a week ago.

He sat down on one of the comfortable chairs, finishing off his coffee. As he did so, he saw a porter from the Japanese postal service coming through the door with a large package on a trolley. Alan couldn't help overhearing some of what was being said. He heard the porter say that the package was for one 'William Penter', the receptionist made a quick phone call, and five minutes later a rather haggard-looking man entered the reception. Compared to the other staff Alan had seen here, this guy looked positively scruffy, with brown hair and slight beard, black shirt and blue jeans. He signed for the parcel, chatted a little with some of the staff hanging around there, before leaving the way he came.

Alan began to wonder where this 'William Penter' had come from. Perhaps he might know just a little bit more than the receptionist did. He stood up, and headed down the corridor. He saw Penter further down the corridor, now in an area behind a guard. Alan approached, only for the guard to approach him.

"Can I help you?" he asked politely.

"Yeah, what's down there?" Alan asked, pointing down the corridor. Penter was now gone.

"Sorry, sir," the guard answered, "That area's off-limits to civilians. You'll need proper authorisation to proceed down here."

Alan nodded, thanking the guard and walking away. Alan wondered if these guards knew that saying 'no entry' was a sure-fire way to get anybody's curiosity going. Still, he saw no sense in causing trouble over what could've been a duff lead anyway, so he headed back to the reception. As he did so, he noticed that there were several boxes dotted around the place. Alan began to wonder what was in them, but didn't look in them. When he got back to the reception, he enquired at the desk again;

"I couldn't help but notice," Alan said, doing his best to be polite, "but what's with all the boxes around here?"

"Well," the receptionist replied, "most of our base operations are relocating back to Utah. The branch office here will still be open, of course."

"Why's that?" Alan asked. It had to be something pretty major if their equipment here was being shipped back there...

The receptionist replied nervously, "You go where the monsters are."

Monsters? So there were monsters in Utah? When Alan asked what sort of monster was out there, the receptionist, who now looked pretty nervous under Alan's questioning, simply said that she didn't know. Alan, figuring he'd hassled the staff here enough for today, decided to leave. Thanking the receptionist, he headed back outside into the car park.

A couple of minutes later, he was riding back onto the main road, heading back to Tokyo. He was annoyed that he hadn't been able to find out much about Mechagodzilla; or should he start calling him 'Kiryuu' now? It definitely rolled easier off the tongue. Still, the day hadn't entirely been unproductive. He'd now found out where Kiryuu was heading, and that there were more monsters over in America. It was the one place he really didn't want to go, but now it looked like he very much needed to.

Of course, the day had left him with many unanswered questions, but at least he knew where to go for answers when the time came. Right now, he smiled to himself. He had a flight to catch.


	3. Psycho

**Psycho**

It had some time since Alan Tyler had flown out here to the United States. His parents had left him a surprising amount of money after their deaths; something which certainly surprised him. That, coupled with his earnings from his freelance G-Chasing work, was enough to let him stay out there for a prolonged period. Once again, he was only interested in G-Chasing out here, though part of him wondered if he should start calling it 'MG-Chasing' now.

For he had come out here after paying a visit to the Utah Foundation's offices in Yokohama, trying to uncover information about their Mechagodzilla project; or was it the 'Kiryuu Project' now? While there, he'd learned that Kiryuu was heading out here to deal with a new monster. Well, wherever monsters were, Alan never wanted to be too far behind. So he'd paid the fares, got himself out here, and had followed up on several leads concerning this 'monster'. Those leads had brought him here to Las Vegas, the 'sin capital'.

He never wanted to come here. As he tore past the brightly-lit neon signs indicating casinos such as the Golden Gate, the Bellagio and the MGM Grand, he felt like he was a pilgrim in an unholy land. Not so much Las Vegas; the whole country of the USA gave him an uncomfortable feeling. For the American government still refused to acknowledge that the attack by Monster Zero on England actually happened. They had covered the whole thing up and claimed it was a terrorist attack, and the British government hadn't been enthusiastic in denouncing their claims. The question that kept burning into Alan's mind was _why_? It didn't make sense. If there were monster attacks on their native soil, why did they still refuse to accept the possibility that a three-headed dragon could attack somewhere other than the US or Japan? Just thinking about it made Alan's blood boil.

Thankfully it didn't look like he would be staying in Las Vegas too long. He had been just outside the city when he'd spotted a military convoy heading away from the city. He'd noticed that they were escorting something; a massive gun, from what he could tell. No doubt some new monster-destroying toy the Americans had dreamed up. As if making a robotic clone of Godzilla wasn't enough.

He'd also felt some kind of tremor; it had been very slight, as if whatever had caused it was some distance away. With that and the presence of military, he had a pretty good idea as to what this might all mean. So he decided to follow them, taking the route through the city itself so as not to get too close to them. Soon he was away from the city limits. He was probably going well above the speed limit, but he didn't care; he wouldn't miss his G-Chases for the world. It would give him a good look at Chrome Crotch while he was at it, too.

It was now sundown, and the moon had just begun to rise in the East. Alan was thankful that he didn't encounter any traffic, not to mention military, on his way here. He began to wonder if he shouldn't consider this odd, but right now he was just thankful he didn't have any unpleasant entanglements.

When he looked around him, all he saw was a dry, barren, desert wasteland, with nothing but the odd dry bush amidst the rest of this almost endless desert. Travelling through this place during the day, he'd not seen so much as a puddle; there was no moisture here at all. Alan wondered why anyone, let alone any monsters, would want to come to such a place. Still, a G-Chase was a G-Chase, even if he was in what felt like the Devil's own arsehole, and even if the monster in question wasn't actually Godzilla. So he continued on, now beginning to focus on the imminent chase that was to come.

For a while, Alan saw nothing of note. Perhaps he'd gone right past that convoy; he hadn't seen them for a while. Where was this new monster that was supposed to be here? He'd heard the rumours, and had been going through several states to look for it, but he'd yet to see it.

When suddenly, he spotted him.

Godzilla, Japan's own native monster, some distance down the road, towering above the surrounding area. Alan couldn't believe it; how had Godzilla got here, and why? He must have burrowed underground to get here; he'd read about him doing this in reports before, but had never actually seen it. Maybe that's why Godzilla had shook himself; he was getting the sand off himself. Could that have been the tremor he felt? No, that had been a while back, and it looked like Godzilla had just got here himself. None of this made sense to Alan. What could Godzilla possibly want in this million-acre sandpit? Unless...

He remembered the very incident that had prompted him to start all this; an encounter he had witnessed between Kiryuu and Godzilla not so long ago. The two of them had not fought or anything. If anything it seemed more like the two were just having a casual chat. That hadn't been the strangest thing about the encounter, though. That had come when it turned out Kiryuu's 'face' - the one that was made public - was nothing more than a mask. The real face still unnerved Alan slightly just thinking about it, for Kiryuu's face was exactly like Godzilla's. Alan still didn't know how the Utah Foundation could possibly have done such a thing, but he had the feeling it might go some way to explaining Godzilla's behaviour towards the mecha. Was that why Godzilla was here now? Was he missing his cybernetic cousin, and had come here looking for him?

_Sorry, pal_, Alan thought, _but the only family you had has been dead for about 50 years._

Alan shook his head. He couldn't help but notice that there were a lot of similarities between Godzilla and himself lately; both of them were orphans, for one thing.

_Get a grip_, he thought bitterly. _Maybe I should take a break from G-Chasing for a while; I'm starting to think we're long-lost brothers or something._

He watched as Godzilla started to trudge away, after he'd taken a moment to observe his surroundings. Alan started to follow in the Landrover, keeping a steady distance away from the titan. Several times he had to go off-road in order to keep up. He became pretty thankful for his choice of vehicle as he pressed on over the desert terrain.

A short ways on, he began to feel as if the air was getting damper somehow, like he was in a jungle rather than a desert. Even further on, a strange sight met his eyes.

A carpet of grass was growing out of the desert itself, right in front of where Godzilla was standing. Even as he watched, flowers - many of which were species that Alan had never seen before - began to bloom as well, somehow illuminating the landscape and bathing it in a dim, eerie glow; a beautiful, yet disturbing sight. Alan's eyes widened; he wasn't a botanist, but even he knew something like this should not be growing here at all.

He drove on after Godzilla, over this oasis that had appeared in the desert. There was a peculiar scent in the air, like a strange perfume that made Alan feel very tired while he drove on. He shook himself, forcing himself to stay awake. He still kept a good distance away from Godzilla, himself seemingly heading towards some kind of unseen destination.

Finally, in the semi-darkness, Alan caught sight of a huge shape, in the middle of the grassy plain. Getting closer, the faint illumination finally gave the shape a form. What he was seeing was a huge green creature, truly the most bizarre creature Alan had ever seen. The head was reptilian, putting Alan in mind of a huge crocodile. The enormous, somewhat bulbous body had a number of tentacles growing out of it, and the body itself looked like it was somehow 'rooted' into the ground, like some kind of monstrous plant.

Alan could scarcely believe his eyes. Neither could Godzilla, it seemed, as he stopped to stare at this strange new creature. Alan stopped a good distance away from the two creatures. He climbed out of the Landrover and hid behind a large fern. He slowly pulled out his camera, and raised it up. The exposure wasn't too good, but the flash might make up for it somehow, even if he ran the risk of getting spotted. Never mind; neither Godzilla nor the creature seemed to be paying much attention to anything other than each other.

As he took a couple of pictures, he saw Godzilla inch slowly towards the new monster. Now Alan could clearly see that the plant monster was much larger than Godzilla; he only came up to its chin. However, he then saw a number of tentacles snaking up behind Godzilla, seemingly growing out of the grassy area around them all. It was then that Alan realised what was happening; a trap.

His first thought was to shout some kind of warning, when suddenly he began to feel extremely tired, and his head started buzzing. Alan closed his eyes, holding his hand up to his head. He swayed slightly on the spot, feeling like the world was spinning. Did this have anything to do with the fragrances in the area? It was then that he heard a voice; a strange, female voice, almost like a low hissing:

_Do not be afraid..._

What was happening? Was he now hearing voices in his head? The buzzing grew louder, and Alan felt like his own head was about to explode.

Suddenly, his eyes rolled into his head, and his whole body felt limp. He didn't even feel his own body collapsing on the grass around him, didn't see Godzilla begin to charge his atomic breath...

***

For the briefest of times, there was nothing but darkness. Gradually though, Alan's vision started to clear. Any minute now he'd be awake lying in the middle of some desert. What had caused him to pass out like that?

Except when his vision began to clear, he saw that he was not lying on the grass now. Instead, he was stood up, facing the strange monster he'd seen only a second ago, except now he was almost as tall as the monster, almost looking it in the eye. It was as if someone had stretched him until he was several hundred feet tall. On top of that, he felt a strange burning sensation inside his mouth, like someone had lit a small fire in it. As if this apparent dream wasn't weird enough, he heard that strange female voice again;

_You do not wish to attack me... but I will make sure all goes according to plan..._

This voice gave off a sense of false comfort, but the slightly low tone and snake-like hissing quality gave an unparalleled sense of menace. It was a horrible, cold voice, giving the impression of a north wind. Alan felt his heart beat faster, even as he suddenly felt a tight clamping sensation on his mouth. What it could be Alan couldn't even begin to comprehend. He tried to struggle against this strange, vice-like grip, but to no avail. He tried to reach for his weapons, to try and fight off this monster, but it felt like his body would not respond to his commands. Then suddenly, he felt the searing fire in his mouth suddenly spread, rapidly burning every inch of his insides, as if someone had poured a kettle of boiling water straight down his throat. He squinted his eyes, smoke clouding his vision, and cried out in searing pain.

_It will be over soon..._

That strange voice again; now it was much louder. At last, he felt the gripping sensation slacken, and he suddenly doubled over, and he noticed that he was retching up his own blood. Coughing and spluttering, Alan felt incapable of even standing. He could not comprehend what was happening to him; all he felt certain of was that it had to be some kind of horrible nightmare.

_Let me wake up soon_, he thought.

He then felt something slowly creeping up his neck, and the side of his head. Then, he felt searing pain again in his lower jaw, like someone had stabbed him there. He glanced down - quite involuntarily - to see one of those horrible creature's tentacles embedded into his own throat. He staggered about, before his back pressed against something. With a start, he realised he'd backed straight into the monster that now held him prisoner.

_Sleep... and wait... Godzilla..._

In his current state, Alan didn't even question why he was being called that. All he knew was that he didn't want to sleep. He wanted to know what was happening to him, but his body seemed incapable of responding. He felt as if he'd been drained of every last ounce of strength he had. His eyes slowly began to close, and he began to feel something crawling over him, keeping him warm. He felt extremely tired, but didn't want to sleep. He knew he had to stay awake, had to get away from this monstrosity, but his body would not listen. He felt himself getting consumed completely into this creature, feeling his senses clouding over.

***

As Alan felt himself come to, he felt that he was hunched, in a fetal position. As he unfurled himself, standing upright, he could see nothing but blackness. No recognisable floors, nor walls, nor ceiling. It was as if he was standing on night itself.

Vivid memories of what had just happened came back to him. He couldn't possibly comprehend what he was seeing now; all he could fathom was that it would cause more harm than good to stay here. He instinctively reached for his weapons, only to find the holsters empty. Somehow, in a strange place, not having these weapons made him feel vulnerable.

He tried to run. No footsteps could be heard as he ran. No matter where he went though, the all-encompassing darkness didn't change. No indicators to a way out, nothing but endless black. He tried to shout, hoping against hope that someone would hear him. His voice echoed strangely around him, but his shouting was to no avail.

_"Going somewhere?"_

Alan recognised the voice instantly. It was the same cold female voice that he had heard in that dream he'd had, and was still having, it seemed. Even as he recognised the voice, he suddenly felt a tightening on his legs and arms, in fact around his whole body. Looking down at himself, he saw several green, strangely metallic-looking tentacles rising out of the 'ground' and wrapping themselves tightly around him. Alan struggled, but ultimately the tentacles rendered him all but immobile. He recognised the tentacles were the very same ones that monster had.

Now it was becoming clear to him. The voice... the tentacles... they all had to belong to the same creature; that monster.

"Get off me!" he shouted out towards the darkness. "Let me out of here, or you'll fucking regret it!"

The voice only returned a cold, humourless chuckle.

_"Brave words," _she hissed, her voice clearly giving Alan the impression that he was dealing with a certifiable psycho, _"He tried to force me out as well, but he can't deny my presence... nor can you now, Alan Tyler."_

Before Alan could even begin to comprehend the meaning of that bizarre statement, he suddenly saw a pair of vivid white eyes appear before him, with a maw full of dagger-like teeth. Alan's eyes widened, and he struggled even harder against the tentacles, but they still held fast. As if this wasn't bad enough, the maw slowly approached him, opening wide. He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the inevitable 'waking-up from the bad dream' sequence.

Except it never came. As he dared to take a peek, he saw someone actually stepping out of the open maw. As the rows of teeth disappeared, Alan now saw the person stood in front of him. Turned out his captor was a young woman, no older than her late twenties, if Alan had to guess. The woman had jet-black hair and cold, violet eyes; surely violet wasn't a normal eye colour? Then again, he need talk. Her complexion was very pale, as pale as white people can be, almost ghost-like. She reminded Alan of some of the Goths who used to frequent Whitby for their holidays. She struck him as being rather pretty, but also with an unfathomable level of bitterness that clearly showed in her appearance. To him, she looked cold, calculating, rather frightening.

Alan could not believe his eyes. Was this his mind's idea of a sick joke? The woman gave that same cold chuckle, her mouth twisted into a horrible sneer.

"Oh, you poor man," she said, in a horrble mock sympathy voice, "Still trying to convince yourself that this is all just a bad dream. You hoping your mother will come to save you?"

Alan felt his blood boil, and he snarled. Both of his parents were dead; murdered by a monster, not that different from this woman, in fact.

"What..." Alan started, but he felt it was tacky to ask what she was. "Who are you?" His tone was still full of his own silent fury.

"If you really want to know, I have the same name as the project that turned me into what I am now," the woman said, her cold tone unchanged, "They call me Biollante."

_Great_, Alan thought, _so now she's throwing yet more riddles at me. I don't know what she means by 'project', but frankly I don't care. I'm getting out of here. God-damnit, I'm getting the fuck out of here!_

He tried struggling against the vines again, but his efforts proved fruitless. The woman who called herself Biollante raised her own hand, waving her finger back and forth and tutting.

"What's the hurry?" she said, in a fake 'sweet' voice, "Surely you want to know how I came to be like this? All I want to know is how a human was able to dive into his mind so easily. Not too much to ask, is it?" she finished, in that same sickly tone, spouting even more riddles. Alan really didn't want to spend any more time with this psycho. Again, struggling really didn't help, and at last he gave up. Biollante gave a self-satisfied smirk, slowly approaching him. Alan got the feeling she'd be getting her answers whether he liked it or not.

"How did you know my name?" he felt the need to ask. Again, all he got was a cold chuckle.

"Soon I will know more than just your name," she said, her voice barely more than a hiss, "There's an awful lot in that head of yours. You are indeed a difficult one to read, especially since right now you're sharing your mind with him, just like I am."

"Who the fuck's 'him'?" Alan asked, really annoyed now.

"You tell me," Biollante simply said, "I would've thought you already knew."

Alan rolled his eyes. He resigned himself to the fact that he was not going to get a straight answer out of Biollante. She was now very close to him. She rested on him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Alan could feel more of those tentacles creeping around him, pulling him in closer, until she was looking straight into his eyes. She released a low sort of purring from her throat as she held him close to her, their faces almost touching. Alan had never been so scared before in his life... and yet at the same time he was excited. How was she doing all this to him, and why?

"I know who I want all to myself," she said, in that same purring tone, barely more than a whisper, "but it has been too long since I felt a human's touch..."

Then, before Alan could make any objections, their lips were locked. Alan's head exploded in ecstacy, feeling her tongue searching every inch of his mouth, their two bodies against each other, the tentacles creeping in ever closer to his head, holding them together. If Alan was being honest with himself, it had been too long since something like this had last happened to him. On the other he didn't want to be with this psycho, Biollante. He was excited by her, and yet she repulsed him for what she was doing to him. He didn't know what he was supposed to think or do.

Finally, their lips parted. Alan breathed hard, trying to shut out any thought of what had just happened. Biollante gave her cold chuckle, sensing that she was weakening him. She gazed intently into his eyes; Alan could see his own reflection in the back of her own cold, violet eyes.

"You have," Biollante said slowly, "such beautiful eyes. They're just like his. You don't have to pretend they're just contacts around me. I know enough to know to expect the extraordinary..."

She slowly moved her hands up his body, until they were touching his face.

"You..." she said, her voice now barely above a whisper. "You are extraordinary."

Without warning, she dug her sharp fingernails straight into Alan's eyes. Alan released an agonised yell as he felt her fingers digging into him, now seemingly growing, spreading all through his body, like thousands of live snakes were in there. He could feel his own blood running down his face. Many images flashed before him, instead of the blackness he had expected. They were flashing by far too quickly for him to make them out; it was like a fast-forwarded slideshow. He did hear voices in his head though; of his own voice, crying out in sheer pain. Even as he listened, he was startled at how it gradually changed, becoming of a much higher pitch, until it became Godzilla's roar.

Suddenly, his vision returned. He gasped for breath, sweat running down his face. Biollante was still in front of him, eyes closed, seemingly relishing every moment of what she had just done.

_Please, God_, Alan thought... _Let me wake up... Please..._

"Fascinating," Biollante's cold voice spoke, "You and I are even more alike than I thought. All of us, all four of us... We're all of the same family."

Alan gasped, his eyes narrowed. He was pretty sure he didn't have any psychotic vegetables in his family!

"Stop playing games with me, Biollante!" he shouted, his anger consuming him, "Tell me what the fuck is going on! Damnit, tell me!"

Biollante only smirked, before releasing a horrible mocking laugh from her throat.

"You really don't know anything, do you, little boy?" she said, mockingly, "You don't know what it is inside you, that they tried to use you as they once tried to use me... and him?"

Biollante was clearly enjoying every minute of this. Her eyes closed again.

"Well, I'd love to be the one to completely, as you might put it 'fuck you up,'" she said, coldly, "Alas, my real target is approaching. All that repressed hatred and rage you harbour is delicious. My little puppet will no doubt become much more obedient with that hatred running through his veins like poison. I just need to ensure you won't interfere; not here, and not in your own body."

Before Alan could even begin to understand what that meant, more of Biollante's tentacles surounded him, now wrapping around him, covering his eyes and mouth. Alan tried to shout out, but the tentacle covered his mouth completely, and he could not see a thing. He felt several of the tentacles bury themselves under his skin, but all of his yells of pain were deadened.

"Pray to me that my puppet lasts out," Biollante's voice could be heard, still loud and clear, "For if he dies, you will die. Your body cannot live without your mind, after all."

After a beat, she added, in that cold, hissing voice, "Catch you later... handsome."

Alan knew that she had left him here to die. What was happening, he could not begin to comprehend. Desperately he tried to think of how he was going to get out of this, and also began to puzzle over some of the riddles that Biollante had kept talking about. Though he was sure she was completely out of her mind, something about her tone meant that he couldn't shut out what she had said completely.

It was then that he started to see strange visions. Visions of a very dark room; very fuzzy images, like on an old TV set. What was Biollante torturing him with now? He then heard voices; male voices, authoritative-sounding ones at that.

_"Her name's Erika Munson,"_ one voice was saying, _"According to her medical records, she has been in and out of foster homes ever since her parents abandoned her. She has had several analysts take a look at her, but... in all honesty we believe she's beyond help."_

_"Isn't that why all those analysts turned her over to us in the first place? Because she was getting too big for her boots?"_ another, somewhat harsher-sounding voice spoke. _"What about her abilities, anyway?"_

_"From the reports, and from our own experimental analysis,"_ the first voice spoke, _"It seems that Erika is strongly telepathic. Every test has proven positive in that regard. As her powers increased though..."_ An uneasy silence followed for a few seconds, _"The reports state that she's... well, that she's been really messing around in people's lives with them. We've been getting reports that she-"_

_"I don't recall asking for specifics,"_ the other voice said brisquely. _"What matters is that she's here, and the government wants to know how we can harness this power of hers."_

_"Sorry, General Garrison,"_ the other voice replied. _"But... are you sure this is right? Using bio-syntech and Godzilla cells on a girl... It's just..."_

_"I know..."_ the man called Garrison replied, _"But it's still our jobs, and we get paid to not question our orders. Besides, we've been given the go-ahead. Gordon Knight's sending us a sample of bio-syntech - he thinks we're researching how to use the substance in experimental combat armour."_

A silence followed, before Garrison spoke again.

_"Do you think she knows what's happening?"_

_"Who knows?"_ the other person responded, _"Just because she's heavily under sedatives doesn't mean her mind has stopped functioning. Who knows if she'll remember any of this though..."_

"_Enjoying yourself?"_ Biollante's voice suddenly called out. _"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to nose about in other people's personal affairs?"_

With that, Alan found himself in total blackness, once again bound by the tentacles. An insane idea struck him. Were those really Biollante's memories that he had just seen? Was this how she had become that monster? What was with those other people he had heard? Whatever had happened to Erika Munson, it had gone all the way to the top. Godzilla cells and bio-syntech; it would explain a lot. What did all this have to do with him though?

Was it just him, or were the tentacles beginning to slacken? He felt like he could move around slightly more. Now he was sure he was hearing other voices now. They were garbled, like a badly-tuned radio signal, but as he strained to hear more, he could make out others speaking. The first voice he heard was unmistakeably Biollante's, but it sounded as if it was coming from some distance, as if she was talking to somebody else.

_"Now that is an interesting position,"_ he heard her saying, as she gave a cold chuckle, _"Hopefully Godzilla won't be too mentally disturbed afterwards."_

The second voice Alan heard was a male voice; a deep, powerful male voice at that. He got the impression that this was a voice that was usually pretty handsome, but right now was full of rage.

_"Shut up! You're the one who sighted him to attack me! How dare you do such a thing?! He's my son!"_

_"Well, here's something else you should know,"_ Biollante retorted. _"It seems that the dear General wants to be rid of all three of us. He has now signed your death certificate."_

_"What?!"_ the male voice cried.

_"No!"_

That was a third voice - a terrified female voice, quite unlike Biollante's cold voice. Whoever that woman was, she was clearly terrified out of her mind. Alan tried to shout out to those two, tried to get their attention, but the tentacles suddenly tightened their grip again; it seemed Biollante was onto him.

"_Have you never heard the saying 'curiosity killed the cat'?"_ her voice spat, sounding spiteful. _"Keep out of this if you know what's good for you!"_

Alan felt the grip tighten. He felt Biollante bearing down on him, trying to restrain him, trying to stop him from escaping. Any curiosity about his situation had left him; all he knew now was that he had to get out somehow.

He focused hard, determined to find any means of escaping from his imprisonment. Finally, he started to feel the grip of the tentacles slacken. As the tentacle covering his eyes was slowly removed, Alan could now faintly see a dark figure standing over him, holding him secure. As his vision began to clear, and he got a better look at the outline of the figure, he realised he'd seen them before.

For the outline was Kiryuu's. How or why he was seeing this, he could not begin to fathom. Right now though, he didn't care; not much had made sense all day anyway. He focused entirely on escaping, and as more tentacles were removed, Kiryuu's image began to grow clearer...

"_Leaving so soon, little boy?"_ Biollante's mocking voice said. _"I had hoped you would stay and play a little longer. You're safer in here than you are out there."_

"Aw, shut up!" Alan retorted. At last, the final bond was loose. Kiryuu's visage became crystal-clear for a moment, until there was a blinding flash, followed by nothing but darkness. Alan's last concious thoughts were that the nightmare was over. The rest of his sleep after that was dreamless.

***

Hours later, Alan finally started to come to. As his vision slowly came to him, he started to become more aware of his surroundings. He was no longer in the desert, but in a soft bed. He slowly sat up, starting to realise that he was now in a small hospital ward.

So it had all been a dream. So why was he still remembering all those terrible events, all of Biollante's words, so loudly and so clearly? As he looked around, a pretty red-headed nurse walked up to him.

"Welcome back, Mr. Tyler." the nurse greeted him cheerfully.

"Where am I?" Alan said, his voice showing extreme weariness, as if he had run a mile.

"Hospital just outside Las Vegas," the nurse helpfully informed. "You were found lying in the desert about 50 miles outside town. A couple of conscientious truck drivers found you after the monster attack, and brought you here. Your car was also towed here."

"Monster attack?" Alan asked. He knew full well there had been a monster attack, but he wanted to know the outcome. "What happened?"

"From what I read in the papers," the nurse replied, "Seems there was a three-way rumble between Mechagodzilla, Godzilla and a big plant monster. The plant monster was destroyed, but not before it had flattened a whole military garrison, killing a high-ranking general. Godzilla then ran off, and Mechagodzilla's gone back to Utah."

Alan couldn't believe it. He'd missed it. He'd passed out in the desert and he'd missed it all. He could not curse his stupid luck any more.

"If you want to go," the nurse said, "You've got a clean bill of health. All you need to do is get your stuff, fill a few forms, then you're all set to go."

Alan thanked the nurse, and dragged himself to his feet. He slowly walked through the hopsital to the reception, and filled in the forms their, picking up his gun, whip and camera. He attracted a few odd looks as he walked out, towards his Landrover. Getting in the driver's seat, he couldn't help running through everything in his mind once again. Even as he was pulling out of the hospital car park, Biollante's words kept haunting him.

What had she meant by all that? Was their any truth to what she was saying? Or were they all just riddles that were never meant to be solved? Had the government really turned telepathic delinquent Erika Munson into that plant monster Biollante? In the end, Alan couldn't help but feel that it was just some grand hallucination, probably brought on from whatever pollen was in those strange flowers. He settled on that conclusion; it would be much easier to just pass it off as a dream.

Still, even some dreams got you to thinking. What if his own mind became his worst enemy? How could you run away from, let alone fight an enemy that was always a part of you, always with you no matter what you did?

Whether or not everything he had witnessed in that dream world had actually happened, Erika Munson couldn't answer that.

Her enemy had won.


	4. Life Through a Lens

**Life Through a Lens**

_Follow me, son..._

It couldn't be... Surely not... his father was dead...

There was nothing but blackness around him at first, like he was standing on night itself. Gradually though, he started to see something else. His vision gradually cleared, until he found out that he was now in the middle of the ocean. He wasn't in a boat; he was several feet above the water, almost as if he was flying. Standing on the water itself, as if it was as solid as the land, was a figure that he had tried to forget about; a figure that even now he still felt resentment for, known to him as Kiryuu.

The cybernetic creature looked at him intently, his reptilian face clearly visible without his helmet, the strange, dreadlock-like bio-syntech tentacles drifting as if of their own accord, like dozens of live snakes. It was the expression on that face that he didn't like. The snout was twisted into a strange, crooked grin, every one of those sharp, dagger-like teeth visible between the parted lips. The pupils of his eyes were extremely narrowly slitted, almost indistinguishable from the blazing amber irises. Those eyes carried an undeniable hint of madness. He wanted to run away, escape from this creature, but it was if his body was doing what it wanted. He was moving straight towards Kiryuu, above the surface of the water. He couldn't even look away, as much as he wanted to. He just kept looking straight at that strange, almost mad face, moving straight towards it.

_Enjoy this, you shall..._

That deep voice was coming seemingly from nowhere. He had the strange feeling he'd heard it somewhere before. The voice then emitted a low, horrible chuckle; a sound that sent shivers down his spine. Suddenly, all around him, the waters around them both began to churn, spinning, boiling, until finally exploding all around them. He glanced quickly around, but there was now nothing to see except water on all sides, forming a spinning wall all around him, like he was inside a tornado.

All of a sudden, he was dragged down as the waters suddenly cascaded down on top of him. He searched desperately around for Kiryuu, but he had completely disappeared. The waters all around him continued to fall, actually falling down his throat, choking him. The water was forced so quickly down him that he was seeing stars. He desperately tried to swim back to the surface, but he was falling too fast. He was drowning. Finally, even knowing it was useless, he tried to shout out as he fell, his vision becoming dark.

He suddenly collided with a very hard surface. He was now sore all over, and with a blinding headache. He lay for a moment, moaning, cursing under his breath. Finally, as much as he didn't want to right now, he slowly opened his eyes.

Brushing strands of his long brown hair out of his eyes, he soon found that he was gazing up at the ceiling of a hotel room, a brass ceiling fan spinning away above him, even though it wasn't doing a very good job of keeping the heat away. Slowly, he tried to sit up, as a small brown cabinet in the room slowly came into view. Looking to his side, he saw the bottom of a bed, with the sheets pulled towards the side of the wood floor he was now sat on. It had all been a nightmare; just another stupid nightmare.

"Shit," he muttered, wiping his eyes.

This was how the day started for Alan Tyler, as he eventually tried to pull himself up from the floor of his hotel room in the city of La Correra, Panama. He'd been travelling this far to get away from his pursuit of G-Chasing for a while. He felt he needed to go somewhere new for a while, somewhere where he could forget what had happened recently in his life.

No matter where he ran though, the nightmares still haunted him. Some time ago he'd been out in Nevada, following up on leads of a supposed new monster that had been in the area. As well as finally seeing the monster - a strange hybrid of a plant and some kind of crocodile - none other than Godzilla had shown himself in the area. He remembered passing out, and waking up in a hospital several hours later.

However, he also remembered the vivid nightmares that came to him while he was out; those voices, the strange visions, and most of all, _her_. For in those nightmares he had encountered a woman calling herself Biollante, a woman who believed herself to be the very same plant monster that had been hiding in Nevada. She had... tortured him... tantalised him... toyed with him, like how a cat might play with its prey. She had kept him prisoner, filling his head with numerous riddles and bizarre statements; words which still stayed with him, even now.

Even to this day, and for some time afterwards, Alan would not be able to make sense of what he had seen and heard from Biollante. He'd tried to pass it all off as just some kind of fevered delusion. Perhaps it was something in that bizarre scent he had smelled right before he passed out. Although now that he thought about it, even before then he had had bizarre dreams like that before. Dreams that felt so real, almost like they were actually happening. They had never been so vivid though; certainly not since before his encounter with Biollante.

What was the meaning of it all? Was there even meant to be any meaning? Alan held his head in his hands, his migraine brought on by both his fall and the sheer frustration at not knowing what was going on, of not being able to make sense of it all. He finally decided it was no use sitting here feeling sorry for himself. He crossed over to the kitchen and took a swig of bottled water. To think, things used to be so simple in his life. The only complicated parts were trying to stay alive during particularly difficult G-Chases. Other than that, things used to be so simple.

Ever since the Monster Zero attack on England two years back, life had never been the same again for him. He had barely survived the attack by that monster, and yet the American government still refused to acknowledge that the three-headed dragon that Alan himself had taken photos of existed. He found it hypocritical that they tried to pass off all accounts of Monster Zero as an elaborate joke, considering that the American government had given the go-ahead for their largest medical conglomerate to build a Godzilla robot to try and kill Godzilla. Saying that, the Mechagodzilla, whose creators called Kiryuu, had more than a few mysteries of his own. He certainly hadn't killed Godzilla; quite the opposite, in fact, from the curious actions of the mech he had witnessed so far.

He tried to push all thought of Kiryuu or Godzilla or anything else like that out of his head. He'd come down here to get away from that for a while, so he decided he'd enjoy himself for once. The Panama Canal wasn't far from here; maybe he'd make that his next port of call. He'd heard that some private airfields gave aerial tours of the area; perhaps he could give that a try.

So, shortly after, he was out on the open road once again, driving his rented Landrover along the main roads in this hot part of the world. He had the windows down, allowing the breeze in. His long hair flapped about in the breeze, for he had forgotten to tie it back as he usually did. He imagined that if his parents could see him now, they'd say all he'd need would be a moustache and beard and he'd look like a hippy. If only they were even alive now.

He suddenly heard a shrill beeping coming from his cellphone. He pulled over to the side of the road, stopping the car and then answered the phone.

"Hello?" he asked.

_"Alan, it's me!"_ came the voice of Dr. Yuji Shinoda, Alan's G-Chasing contact in the Godzilla Prediction Network. Shinoda knew full well Alan was out here on this side of the Pacific, what the hell was he ringing him for? Surely he didn't have that much credit.

"What is it?" Alan asked, tentatively.

_"You're not going to believe this!"_ Shinoda said, his tone breathless with nervous excitement. Whatever had happened, it had spooked him somewhat. _"It's Gojira... he's near the Panama Canal!"_

"Well, isn't it about time he expanded his horizons a little?" Alan joked.

_"You don't understand!"_ Shinoda said, impatiently. _"I don't understand how he got there so quickly! One moment he was on Ogasawara Island, the next he's near the Panama Canal! I don't understand it..."_

Alan didn't either. How had Godzilla managed that? How had he got all the way from the Pacific to the Atlantic as quickly as Shinoda said he had?! This was just too weird.

_"I wasn't sure whether to call you,"_ Shinoda continued, _"I knew you were in America, but-"_

"Look," Alan interrupted, "I'm in Panama now. I'll go check it out."

_"Really?"_ Shinoda said, clearly surprised to know that Alan had gone so far afield. _"Okay, but be careful. Hurry; you may not have much time."_

With that, Shinoda hung up.

Well, it looked like Alan would be bringing his work on holiday with him. He looked around him. He was still some distance away from the Panama Canal; how could he get there quickly? Also, he wanted to be able to get a good view, especially if he was taking his camera. It was then that he spotted a small, private airfield, no more than a hundred yards from where he was. Reasoning that it belonged to one of the local tour companies, he drove up closer, and looked out across the airfield. By an incredible stroke of luck, there was still one helicopter parked outside the tiny office building. He was sure he could get there in time on that.

He pulled up outside the office building, and spent the next five minutes in negotiation with the tour operators. His Spanish was up to a good standard by now, so he was able to negotiate a deal; the tour would be on his conditions, and the company would be paid far more than the usual tour price. The company agreed, and so Alan dashed out to the helicopter and climbed into the back seat. He was quickly followed by the youngest of the 'company's' members; a young man with heavily Hispanic features. He climbed into the pilot's seat, and started up the rotor.

"Good day, senor," he said so calmly Alan could've sworn he'd rehearsed it, "My name's Carlos, I'm your pilot for today. Heard you got some 'special business'; that why you paying us five times the usual tour price?"

"You could say that, amigo," Alan replied. He'd built up a small fortune from his G-Chases, from selling on his photos and data to the press and research companies. Nowadays funds were at something of a low, but still enough to bribe these people to take him to the Panama Canal. Alan held tightly onto his camera - his most important G-Chasing tool - as the helicopter lifted off from the ground, and set off north-northeast towards the Canal.

As the helicopter flew above the Panamanian countryside, Alan began to wonder how it was possible Godzilla could've got to the Panama Canal so quickly. Then again, he'd had a lot of weird things happen to him lately, even if he felt like this was really taking the biscuit. No doubt now that Godzilla had made landfall there, that Kiryuu would show up as well. He was never too far behind Godzilla these days. Shinoda was right; the Utah Foundation's detection methods would soon have him out of a job.

"So," Carlos said from the pilot's seat, "What sort of business is this? Why all the rush?"

"You'll see in a minute," Alan said; he figured these tour guys would never agree if he'd said he was following up on rumours that Godzilla had been spotted in the area. "Just keep flying."

Carlos shrugged, and for a time the rest of the journey continued in silence. As the helicopter finally approached the watery expanse of the Panama Canal, Carlos let out a gasp of shock. For they were now clearly visible on the opposite shore; both of the Godzillas. One flesh and blood; the other metal and bio-syntech. Both of them were staring each other down, making odd growls, snarls and chirrups; Alan recognised these as their 'language', and began to wish he'd brought a tape recorder. Alan also noticed that Kiryuu had removed his helmet, his bio-syntech 'hair' blowing freely in the wind. He looked absolutely furious.

Carlos was as white as a sheet. Of all the tours that he had ever given, there was no way that he could ever have expected one to turn out like this. He'd heard of the two monsters, had read the news reports, but had never expected to see them in the flesh. Hovering slightly away from Kiryuu were three White Heron jets, keeping a safe distance away from the two. Perhaps they were what transported Kiryuu about.

"Er..." he stammered, "So what now?"

"Take us closer," Alan said, readying his camera.

"Closer?!" Carlos exclaimed, "If you think I'm-"

"Don't argue," Alan said, in his coldest, most threatening tone, "Just think of the money."

"You're crazy, puto..." Carlos muttered, along with a variety of other Spanish slander. He was still muttering even as he sent the helicopter closer to the two titans. By this time, Alan had set himself up with a safety harness attached to the inside of the helicopter. Pulling his camera out, he pulled open the side door, and sat on the edge, his feet resting on the landing rails.

"Hold her steady!" he shouted, as he raised his camera, and began to take photos. He saw Godzilla turn away, only to stop when Kiryuu suddenly raised his arm cannons at him. Alan was surprised by this; up until now Kiryuu and Godzilla had been on good terms. What was with the threats?

It was then that Godzilla suddenly spun round, letting loose a powerful roar, charging at his robotic counterpart. He tried to swipe Kiryuu with his claw, only for Kiryuu to grab it and suddenly lock it into Godzilla's back. Godzilla fell to his knees, his arm pinned behind his back by Kiryuu. Alan wondered where the machine had picked up a tactic like that. Seemed monsters could fight as dirty as humans. He also noticed a pair of bio-syntech tentacles extend from Kiryuu, forming sharp tips that pointed straight at Godzilla.

Alan often wondered how exactly the bio-syntech worked. He'd heard the rumours of how Kiryuu could seemingly mould the bio-syntech into different shapes at will, but he'd yet to see that in action until now. The noises coming from Kiryuu were harsh, and Godzilla seemed to be 'retorting' in a harsh manner of his own.

"Christ..." Alan said out loud, "Why can't they settle their differences over a pint?"

He had said such a thing to try and make Carlos feel at ease, but it clearly hadn't worked for the pilot remained silent. He was pretty sure Carlos had been stunned into silence by what he was seeing, even though Alan was too used to this to care. Even so, he was pretty curious as to what the big fallout was, as Kiryuu eventually let Godzilla go, Godzilla staggering to his feet. He heard Godzilla sigh as he headed off towards the west, away from Kiryuu and the helicopter. Alan noticed that they were now almost right above Kiryuu; it seemed Carlos was thinking about the money a lot.

All at once, a thought came into Alan's head, loud enough to momentarily blot out his own thoughts:

_You're right... things change, because you certainly did._

Alan shook himself. Where had _that_ come from? It had been an extremely bitter, rather spiteful thought, yet Alan had no reason to think that way about anybody. What had that been all about? He pulled himself together. Maybe he was just tired, but he knew he couldn't afford to rest now. He aimed the camera, now not needing the zoom so much due to their close proximity of Kiryuu. It was then that he heard Carlos speaking into his radio; it seemed he was in talks with the pilots of the White Herons, who no doubt were curious as to why a tourist helicopter was still in the area. Perhaps they were a bit too close; but Alan didn't care, as long as he could get good photos.

It was then that he saw Kiryuu turn, and look straight at the chopper, his bio-syntech blades retracting. Carlos gave a loud gasp, now sounding like he was having a lot of trouble keeping his nerves in check. In that moment, Alan saw that Kiryuu was looking straight at him; straight into the camera lens.

Alan quickly snapped the photo. That had been perfect. The shot captured Kiryuu perfectly, looking straight at the camera, every detail on his face visible, even down to the slit pupils of his eyes. The bio-syntech dreadlocks were blowing freely in the wind. Overall, this was a powerful, dramatic shot; it could've been a coined work of art if it wasn't about a gigantic cybernetic dinosaur.

However, Alan heard loud footsteps, and looked up just in time to see Godzilla charging straight at Kiryuu, trying to attack him from behind.

"Pull up!" he shouted to Carlos, who didn't need telling twice. He pulled the helicopter up so sharply that Alan was almost thrown out of the door. He held on tight, glancing down to see Kiryuu suddenly grab Godzilla's claw and throw him over his shoulder. As Godzilla was thrown, his tail barely missed the helicopter, shaking it in the sudden draft. Alan almost let go of the camera as he was thrown about, but mercifully his grip held.

He saw Kiryuu pin Godzilla to the ground, wrapping the bio-syntech around his snout. He snarled, before releasing his captive. Godzilla stood up shakily, and another round of 'conversation' started. Whatever had happened, Alan had the feeling that he could tell both parties involved were pretty pissed off with one another.

After a few minutes, he saw Kiryuu pick up his helmet once again and re-attach it to his face. There was a sudden loud sound as Kiryuu suddenly jumped, flying towards the White Herons. As Alan watched, he saw sets of cables lower from the jets and attach themselves to Kiryuu, before flying off towards the east. Godzilla himself started trudging back towards the west.

"Okay," Alan called to Carlos, who had remained silent until now, "Take us out of here."

"Finally, senor," Carlos said, quietly. The poor guy must've ended up with more than he bargained for today. Alan was reminded of Hutchinson, a soldier he had met during the Monster Zero attack, and how he reacted upon finding out Godzilla was real. Still, Alan was appreciative of what Carlos had done, even if it was just for the money.

As they started to head back towards the airfield, Alan spotted Godzilla stop, hesitating for a moment. He kept looking back towards the direction Kiryuu had gone; Kiryuu himself was now long gone. He saw the reptile hesitate for a moment, before doubling back and marching back towards the east.

"Defiant bugger, aren't you?" Alan muttered, a smirk spreading across his face.

***

Later, Alan had arrived back at his hotel room, after paying the airfield owners their inflated prices, plus some more for their trouble. They'd been pretty pissed when they'd learned of what Alan had just bribed their pilot into doing; no doubt they weren't about to let him fly with them again! Alan didn't care though. He'd got some great photos from that shoot. Perhaps he didn't need to take a break from G-Chasing after all. Being busy then had helped to take his mind off things.

Feeling exhausted after his trip, Alan collapsed onto the bed. He reached over to pick up the TV remote from the bedside table, and switched on just in time to catch the news.

_"We'll have more updates on the war on terror as and when we receive them,"_ the reporter from NBC stated. _"And for those of you just tuning in, we'll repeat our exclusive footage of the Utah Foundation's Mechagodzilla unit... um... taking time out down at Miami Beach earlier today. According to official statements..."_

The reporter continued speaking while the footage acquired was playing, but Alan wasn't really listening. He saw the shaky footage play, obviously taken from one of their newscopters. Alan saw Kiryuu, once again helmetless, relaxing on the golden sands of Miami Beach, the pristine white hotels lining the boardwalk. He could spot hundreds of tiny figures gathering around, all clearly anxious to get a glimpse of the Utah Foundation's most prized possession. Down in the crowd, he could just make out tiny flashes from cameras. Alan doubted they'd get very good photos, least of all without most of their photos taken up by the crowd.

When Alan saw what Kiryuu was doing, he burst out laughing. For Kiryuu seemed to be enjoying the sunshine himself, for one moment he was reclining on the sand, looking up at the sky, before leaning on one hand, placing the other on his bent knee. Alan often called this the 'beachcomber' pose; the sort those muscle-bound guys with too many muscles and too few brains did to woo the ladies in the area. Alan began to wonder just how a relationship between a human and a giant, robotic lizard would work, and this thought only made him laugh even louder.

_Never figured he'd be the sort to go on the pull_, Alan thought. It amused him no end to know that even this 'flawless' machine occasionally slipped up with something like this. Someone on their team must've had a very odd sense of humour to dream this up. He sighed, still smirking, recalling the photo of Kiryuu he had taken from his camera's memory. It seemed Kiryuu just could not avoid the cameras anymore. Perhaps he was now playing up to them; like any good celebrity, it seemed he was always doing anything for publicity.

_I ought to send a print of this to the Utah Foundation_, he thought, grinning at the thought. _That'd really rub salt in their wounds_.


	5. Breaking News

**Breaking News**

Alan suddenly found himself jerking awake, the following morning after the photoshoot at the Panama Canal. He sat upright in the bed in his hotel room in La Correra, panting hard, his face streaked with sweat.

Those dreams were coming back to him; they were so vivid and real that for a moment he forgot where he was. This time, it was truly weird. He'd been hearing garbled voices, a whole variety of them, both men and women. The voices were indistinct, seemingly coming from the mouth of one person rather than individuals. Every now and then he'd thought he could make out some of the voices more distinctly. He was sure he had heard someone speaking in old Shakespearian English, but again the voice was too garbled to be distinct. Not only had what he had heard been indistinct, but what he had seen had been just as unclear. He could remember seeing the surface of water, as if he was viewing it from underneath. He could've sworn he had seen flashes of lightning as well. A thousand other sights and sounds had been present, each as unclear as the last.

It was daylight outside, the soft light filling the room through the plain white curtains. The room started to come into clearer focus as Alan dragged himself further into the waking world. The dresser, a couple of chairs and a TV and VCR gradually became visible, as well as a small bundle of bags and suitcases. Alan was supposed to leave Panama in a couple of days, and start his journey back north to the USA. He had packed early because he had hoped to leave earlier. He quite fancied heading for Florida, especially if Kiryuu was going to be sticking around there.

A smile spread across his face as he thought back to the events of yesterday. Not only had he managed to snap a fantastic portrait of the Utah Foundation's most valued possession, he'd also seen that someone there had a warped sense of humour. News reports had shown Kiryuu to be quite the sun worshipper in Miami Beach. He'd attracted quite a crowd, and had put on a hell of a show. He remembered seeing Kiryuu lying on that beach as if he was going 'babe-spotting', hearing the roar Kiryuu gave that left its mark on the crowd. Alan could remember thinking that he sounded more and more like Godzilla every time he heard him.

Sliding across the double bed and reaching for the remote for the TV, he couldn't help chuckling as he thought about what might happen next time Kiryuu appeared on the news. What was it going to be? He'd got himself a girlfriend? He'd been caught smoking a joint of weed? Well, footballers ended up in the newspapers all the time, and they were all as smart as pig swill, maybe it wasn't so impossible that a mechanical dinosaur could end up on the front pages for anything.

He switched on the TV, the channel set for CNN. As the sound on the TV kicked in, even before the picture came up, Alan at first thought that there was on-the-spot reporting from the so-called 'War on Terror' going on:

_"Unbelieveable sights here... It's like a scene from a horror movie... A sudden lightning storm, not forecast... Miami is in ruins... These incredible titans at each other's throats..."_

_Holy shit..._ Alan thought as he heard the voices. As the picture came into focus, his mouth fell open at the sights he was seeing. The footage was a live broadcast displaying the events at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Only yesterday Alan had seen this area on the news, with its pristine beaches and white hotels lining the boardwalk. Now the place looked like an atomic bomb had hit it; a somewhat ironic allegory, if Godzilla had been responsible. The entire place was in ruins, fires still burning away. It looked like a storm was in the area, as Alan could see lightning flash across the sky in bright, searing bolts.

In the midst of it all, he saw them. Three of them, all standing amidst the ruins of this once peaceful area. Three enormous creatures, two of them seemingly in combat. The gigantic lizard known as Godzilla was stood away, almost as if he himself was too nervous to get into the fight that was now taking place. The camera swerved to fully display Kiryuu, helmetless, engaged with his opponent, a creature that looked to Alan like some kind of bipedal seahorse. The monster was covered in firey red scales, with a huge fin spreading from the top of its head all the way down to over halfway down its back, like some kind of mohican. Alan saw that the seahorse creature had one claw raised to the sky, and that the lightning bolts in the area actually seemed to be striking Kiryuu himself. Alan suddenly imagined that the monster was summoning the lightning bolts, even though he knew how ridiculous that sounded. Monsters couldn't control weather; they didn't need to. They were like forces of nature themselves.

As he watched, he saw Kiryuu land a vicious kick at the monster, sending it flying back. The camera quickly moved to keep up with the action, zooming in close to the two combatants. The new monster picked itself up, shaking its head, stunned from the attack. Alan looked back at Kiryuu, to spot him ripping off the plating on his right arm, exposing the synthetic muscle tissue underneath. Alan wondered why Kiryuu would want to expose his workings like that. Then he remembered what he saw in Panama, of how Kiryuu had shaped the bio-syntech into sharp blades, seemingly at will. Was he going to do something similar here? He saw the new monster open its mouth wide, no doubt preparing some kind of weapon of its own.

Except it never got the chance. For Kiryuu picked that moment to force an entire mound of bio-syntech down the creature's throat, as wide as the trunk of an oak tree. Alan involuntarily moved his hand up to his throat. He could probably imagine what the monster was feeling right now, for he had once had the feeling that someone was forcing something down his throat, blocking up any possible means of breathing. It had been one of those weird dreams he'd had a while back, except that things were about to take a new twist. For there was a sudden, loud cracking sound, and the camera hurriedly zoomed in closer to the red monster. As Alan looked closer, he saw something sticking out of the monster's neck, moving in a smooth circular pattern around the neck. It struck Alan that the 'something' was two large blades.

The bio-syntech; it was the only possible explanation. The blades made a complete circle, and Alan soon realised what had just happened, for the monster's head peeled clean away, completely severed from the body. He thought he had seen everything in his G-Chases, but even he had to wince as the monster's head fell away from the body, and landed with a loud crash on the ground, where it rolled slightly before stopping completely.

Kiryuu definitely had a violent streak, to say the least. Perhaps it was for the best that Godzilla had got in his good books for some unfathomable reason. Speaking of which, Godzilla seemed to be holding back, eyes wide with shock. He continued to watch as Kiryuu retracted the bio-syntech from the body, and suddenly fired the weapon known as the Absolute Zero cannon. Until now, this had been assumed to be Kiryuu's deadliest weapon, as Alan watched it freeze the body before it could fall, but now Alan figured that bio-syntech could definitely be the deadliest.

The most bizarre events were yet to come. For Kiryuu suddenly held his throat, seemingly gagging on something. Indeed, it looked like he was going to be sick. Maybe Alan was just imagining it, but he thought he could feel a slight burning sensation in his throat. That wasn't what bothered him though. For suddenly a dazzlingly white blast erupted from Kiryuu's mouth, shooting straight towards the frozen statue. The blast carried on straight through the statue, as the frozen form of the headless monster was disintegrated completely by the searing white fire.

Alan couldn't believe his eyes. It was impossible... Alan thought Kiryuu had maser cannons in the mouth, not full-blown fire breath. Was it atomic fire like Godzilla's, or was it plasma? In either case, he could scarcely believe what he was seeing. The newscaster had gone silent. It seemed for once the reporter was lost for words.

It wasn't going to end there though, for Kiryuu was still clutching his throat, almost as if he had burnt his insides with that blast. Then Alan suddenly heard Kiryuu roar; a roar that was exactly like Godzilla's in every detail. Up until this point, Kiryuu's roar had always had a metallic sound to it, no matter how much it tried to sound like Godzilla. Now, however, this roar had none of the strange, creepy metallic sounds. This was the real deal, a true roar. As Kiryuu sounded the trumpet-like call, Godzilla joined in with his own voice. Alan imagined that the noise would be deafening to anyone nearby; it was extremely loud on the TV as it was.

It was then that he saw Kiryuu gagging again, as he started to tip his snout to the sky. This time, Alan got a good look at the dorsal spines. Now that he was properly looking at them, he realised that they were not covered in metal like they usually were. Instead, they were white, and now glowing very brightly, like Godzilla's did when he was about to release his atomic fire. Even as Alan thought this, he saw Kiryuu release another blast of superheated plasma, seemingly scorching the sky. He saw ringlets form around the plasma blast, as the air around it became superheated itself. The blast then ceased as quickly as it had started, and Kiryuu collapsed onto his knees, coughing and spluttering.

Once again, Alan was taking a good look at the spines. Now that he was getting a better look, they looked to him like they were made of bone.

_Oh God..._ he thought. _The bastards couldn't have..._ He wanted to believe that his eyes were playing tricks on him. He continued to watch, his eyes wide, as Godzilla ran to Kiryuu, kneeling down next to him, patting the mecha's back. He could hear the two of them seemingly engaged in 'conversation', in their strange animal language. The sounds they were making seemed soft. To Alan, they sounded almost affectionate. Indeed, he saw Kiryuu's claw slowly reach up to touch Godzilla's face, like a father might do with his son. Alan was spellbound. If this was truly what he thought it was, then it would explain everything.

He watched as Godzilla finally stood up, growling sadly, heading back out to sea, Kiryuu watching him go. Alan was silent, incredulous at what he had witnessed. He could not believe what he had seen, and he didn't dare believe the theory that was now running through his head; the only possible explanation he could think of, especially after getting a good look at the spines.

As he saw the White Heron jets pick up the barely-alive Kiryuu and escort him out of the area, the newscaster finally seemed capable of speaking again. His voice was quiet; shocked, stunned. It was rare to see a reporter that was lost for words.

_"Incredible scenes here, folks... We'll display these events again, and follow up on this story as and when we have updates. This is Richard Barnadell, CNN, Ft. Lauderdale..."_

The report faded back to the newsroom, with one last, lingering shot of the severed head, and Alan, spellbound by what had happened, switched off.

***

Over that day and the next day, Alan still didn't leave La Correra. He was anxious to catch whatever news reports he could find of the bizarre events in Florida, and didn't dare travel in case he missed anything important. He had bought several videotapes, and had picked up any newspapers that had covered the events. He now had taped several hours worth of the frequent news updates as and when they had made mention of Kiryuu and Godzilla, and had sat for hours on end, bearing each report further scrutiny The TV was never switched off, always tuned into one news channel or another. He had become fixated with what had happened, and was determined to see if his theories were true. He almost forgot to eat, even to get dressed.

All this time he had suspected that there was something odd about the Utah Foundation's Mechagodzilla; ever since those events in Yokohama so long ago, where Kiryuu and Godzilla had acted as if they were close friends. Kiryuu had been constructed to kill Godzilla, and yet those scenes alone had proven that to be untrue. Now that Alan thought about it, he should have been suspicious ever since the fight in Tateyama, the moment Godzilla's eyes widened after pulling off Kiryuu's right arm. Alan had just thought that Godzilla had been shocked by his own strength, but now, if what Alan suspected was true and the Utah Foundation really had used that... No wonder Godzilla had been shocked.

The news reports were not overly selective in what footage they used. Only the scenes of the monster's death were removed, and even then they reappeared in news reports after the watershed. This was lucky for Alan, as he could tape the events in their entirety, and examine them all. The more he saw the footage, the more he became convinced that his theories were actually the truth. All Alan wanted now was some kind of confirmation, as all he was hearing were wild theories. He only wished he could hear something to put his mind at rest.

Finally, two days after the events in Ft. Lauderdale, Alan's wish was granted. For the Utah Foundation's owner, Gordon Knight, had called a press conference to explain everything that had happened; or at least his version of what had happened. Alan had doubts about the credibility of the source, but then again he also doubted that Knight would be able to explain all of those events so easily. The whole of the country must have been watching, maybe even the world. No doubt England and Japan had been very interested in what had happened.

Alan started the video recorder to tape the whole conference, since CNN had decided to make the whole thing a live transmission. This way Alan knew he would not miss any details that could be edited out later. As the conference began, Alan took a look at the middle-aged Gordon Knight, dressed in a blazer and tie, his short silvery hair looking slightly haggard. Knight looked like he really didn't want to be there; he seemed to be sweating, even physically shaking, looking like he was awaiting the hangman's noose rather than addressing a group of camera crews. Alan could understand; he would have hated to be in Knight's position right now, knowing that thousands, perhaps millions of people had witnessed Kiryuu contradict everything the Utah Foundation had ever said. Finally, Knight began to speak, and Alan paid close attention.

"_Thank you for coming,"_ Gordon said to the press. _"The reason why I brought you all here is to answer your questions about what had happened in Ft. Lauderdale. What you saw-what everyone saw. We are working with the Florida state government and the National Guard to help rebuild what was damaged in Ft. Lauderdale. We had received reports about a monster causing strange-disturbances around the coast of Florida, Bermuda, and most of the Caribbean. We discovered that this monster was a-dinosaur called Titanosaurus. Titanosaurus was discovered by Dr. Akira Mafune in 1977. Dr. Mafune is a Japanese marine biologist whose theories on Titanosaurus made him appear as a mad man to the Japanese scientific community. The Utah Foundation has put that to rest in the confirmation of Titanosaurus' existence. Titanosaurus is proof that there could be more monsters out there besides Godzilla, which is why we have Kiryuu Mechagodzilla on our side. We must be ready."_

_Titanosaurus... Interesting name_, Alan thought. He wondered if Shinoda had ever heard of Dr. Mafune. He had to remember to ask him. Alan also found some irony that people considered Mafune a madman, considering Godzilla had well and truly made his mark on Japanese life by that time.

"_You are saying that monster fighting should solely be the Foundation's responsibility?"_ began one of the other reporters present.

_"Well, unless someone else has a few billion dollars to spend on building another giant robot capable of fighting these monstrosities…"_ Gordon began. _"I mean, that is what we built Kiryuu for."_

"You built Kiryuu only for the extermination of Godzilla," began the reporter from CNN. _"But from what we've seen in Ft. Lauderdale, and from what the Japanese government have reported, and eye-witnesses reports from Nevada have stated that you have failed countless times in this duty. Godzilla still remains. Kiryuu was not built to destroy other monster, it was built to destroy Godzilla. How can you explain this?"_

Gordon swallowed, now looking visibly shaken by that remark. _"Well-Godzilla is a very difficult monster to destroy. I mean, all of the others are easy pickings for Kiryuu. But Godzilla is different." _

_Too bloody right he's different,_ Alan thought bitterly. _If what I'm thinking's true, then it's no wonder Kiryuu has never done what he was built to do._

_"How can you explain about the spines?"_ the reporter continued his question. _"They weren't metallic like we've seen several times in photographs from your company, and from the Internet."_

_A-ha..._ Now Knight had to explain a few things. For the spines had been bothering Alan all over these last couple of days. He figured he knew what they were by now, after all those viewings of the footage taken from Ft. Lauderdale, but he wanted to hear it 'from the horse's mouth'. As he watched, he heard Knight mutter something, before giving a brief glance to somebody off-camera. Alan assumed he was looking for the go-ahead from his investors, meaning that what was coming up had to be important.

_"That is why I have this to show you,"_ Knight said to the gathered reporters. _"Uh-Mr. Penter…"_

_Penter..._ Alan remembered that name. He remembered trying to follow a 'William Penter' in the Yokohama office of the Utah Foundation. It was safe to assume that Penter was right in there with Knight. He now deeply regretted not getting a chance to question him that day.

Behind Knight, a large screen lowered, Knight moving out of the way to give the audience a clear view. A movie started playing as the lights began to dim. As the first scene appeared, Alan could hear several shocked gasps from the reporters at what was being displayed.

At last, Alan had the proof he needed to confirm everything he suspected about Kiryuu. This proved that what he was thinking was true. The film showed a gigantic skeleton laid out on the floor of a huge empty hangar. Alan recognised it instantly, making out the classic dorsal spikes that could only belong to one creature... Godzilla.

_"Ladies and gentlemen,"_ began Knight. _"Godzilla's skeleton. In 1952, the biggest H-bomb the US ever tested exploded over the Bikini Atoll. It was codenamed Mike. Near the Bikinis was an island inhabited by a dinosaur who awoke from a 130 million year suspended animation. The fallout from that H-bomb mutated it, making it grow large-to about 200-feet tall, giving it the plasma breath. And so, Godzilla was born. In 1954, this monster called Gojira by islanders from Odo Island came to Tokyo and completely decimated it. It was later killed by an unknown, experimental chemical created by a Japanese scientist. Only its skeleton remained. But in 1966, another Godzilla showed up-this Godzilla was probably the first one's relative. From our samples, we have theorized that it was the offspring of the first one."_ Gordon cleared his throat. He was visibly sweating. _"When Japan contracted the Utah Foundation, a sub-contractor of the industrial company Lockheed-now Lockheed Martin, we were asked to build them a weapon that could destroy Godzilla-the current one. Godzilla had at that time raided much of Japan, and parts of the US in search for its food-which was discovered to be plasma. Because of our success with bio-syntech used in prosthesis and partly in robotics-we were asked to build them a Godzilla fighting robot. We decided-as irony would put it-that sometimes one's on worst enemy is one's self. So, we built a Mechagodzilla, getting the idea off of another one that existed in the 1970s. They built theirs first, I built one better. So, using the technology available to us, we built Mechagodzilla. We contracted Robo-Tech to build us a proper frame support for Mechagodzilla-a metallic skeleton. When we added everything to the metallic skeleton-it fell apart. We tried everything, titanium, steel, a few mixtures. But we wanted performance as well as strength. We needed something that was lightweight, but also durable, and strong-able to hold up nearly 40,000 tons of weight._

"We had already taken a sample of the skeleton from the original Godzilla to create our syntech muscle system. We used fragmented bone marrow in order to create it. Reptiles, unlike humans, have their genetic code stored within their red blood cells. So it was easy to do and we had enough. But then, we saw that because our metallic skeleton could not withstand the weight we applied as well as the maneuvers we wanted, we had to look elsewhere for a way to get a skeleton strong enough to do it. Godzilla's skeleton seemed perfect for the job."

Alan already knew about the fate of the original Godzilla; the one that had attacked and died in 1954. He didn't know what had killed the first Godzilla; even Shinoda didn't know, even though he'd asked him several times. Now he knew. The spines had looked skeletal all the time he'd been viewing them. He hadn't wanted to believe it, but now he knew for certain that the Utah Foundation consisted of a bunch of graverobbers. They had opened the forbidden door.

Alan was spellbound, both by the sight of the bones and of all of the thoughts running through his head. Alan now knew though that the Utah Foundation had done more than just use the bones. He snapped himself back to reality for a moment to catch the next part of the conference, as another reporter spoke up.

_"You mean to tell us,"_ began the reporter. _"That Godzilla's skeleton is inside that machine's armor?"_

_"We had it slightly reinforced with some titanium,"_ said Knight. _"Mostly around the joint areas. But, yes-under the armor and the syntech lies the skeleton of the first Godzilla. The teeth, skull, ribcage, thigh-bones, back-bones, spines, tail-bones, forearm bones, arm bones, pelvis, fingers, toes-Kiryuu now possesses. The current Godzilla ripped the right arm off of Kiryuu, so he no longer possesses that part of the skeleton. But the rest of the first Godzilla's skeleton is still very much inside of Kiryuu. Which comes to the other problem. Because the bones of the father are inside Kiryuu, Godzilla feels a slight connection to Kiryuu. Godzilla knows and respects his predecessor-so, recently, instead of being a hindrance, Godzilla has proven to be a rather useful ally. Which could be used to our advantage. Also, because of this, we have surmounted tests on Godzilla that we could never have been able to do without Kiryuu. From these tests we've even discovered that both Godzilla and Kiryuu possess a regenerative property within their cells. An amino acid that allows for full cell reconstruction. Which is why Godzilla is hard to kill. He's-invincible. The syntech has heightened this ability for Kiryuu though-which is apparent in his ability to create the famous bio-syntech blades. So, basically, Godzilla and Kiryuu are equally the same. They cancel each other out. But because of their connection, Godzilla has rarely been seen now. He knows that Kiryuu can kill him at any time. The technique used on Titanosaurus was once tested on Godzilla, only-because of certain malfunctions, it was not fully utilized. It was not fully tested. Godzilla knows that Kiryuu can kill him, and in a way he fears that." _

Alan knew instantly that Knight was talking about Organiser G-1. After all, how many times had he heard Shinoda talk about it? He suddenly remembered something that Knight had mentioned, about how they had used samples of the skeleton to create the bio-syntech. Alan could take it as granted that Organiser G-1 had been used. So that was how he had been able to create those blades with the bio-syntech; Shinoda had often theorised that, with Organiser G-1, it was possible to create something out of nothing. He remembered something Shinoda once said, something he'd blurted out during talks about the G-Chases:

_"Gojira is a part of us, in everyone's mind."_

Shinoda had explained that he'd been referring to Japan's collective conscience. Godzilla was a product of human recklessness and their savage nature, and through Godzilla the Japanese were now forever paying the price for such greed and recklessness. Alan idly wondered how Shinoda would react, knowing that, given what the bio-syntech was made of he may have to start taking that statement literally. Once again, humanity's own recklessness had driven them to mess around with what shouldn't be tampered with. Their own folly had driven them to raise the dead.

_"What we saw on the beach didn't look like fear,"_ said another reporter from one of the other stations. _"More like Godzilla was concerned for Kiryuu's well being."_

_"Well, his father's skeleton is inside Kiryuu…"_ Knight shrugged. _"The dumb animal sometimes mistakes Kiryuu for his real father. I don't think that Godzilla knows his father is really dead." _

_Gotcha!_ Alan thought. Knight had practically admitted to what Alan suspected. So even the Foundation's own higher-ups were admitting to such impossible-sounding ideas. It was all true; everything he suspected. He didn't catch most of what was said for a few minutes afterwards, he was so deep in thought; there was something about a joke referring to Star Wars, but that was it.

_"At least that's the theory going around the base as to why Godzilla acts like that when Kiryuu is around,"_ Alan managed to bring himself round in time to hear. _"But again, it is very hard to prove this. We, at this time, do not have the scientific proof to back it up. It is a joke among my staff and I."_ Well, Alan figured he had seen more than enough to say otherwise.

_"What about that plasma blast that came out of Mechagodzilla's mouth?"_ began another reporter. _"How do you explain that?"_

_"That was a malfunction do to many lightning strikes hitting Kiryuu,"_ said Knight. _"Also, do to the fact that Kiryuu really isn't all that seaworthy. We were in a rush to make him seaworthy, and didn't have time to test it. My Dr. Vasquez, who was the head of our underwater bio-syntech research project to create an aqualung from syntech, used an experimental program to try and make Kiryuu more seaworthy."_

_What utter bollocks,_ Alan thought. He'd been around Godzilla long enough to know that when the spines lit up, you'd better get out of the way sharpish. Thinking back over the footage he had seen of Ft. Lauderdale, when Kiryuu had fired that plasma blast, his spines had been lit up like a Christmas tree. It had nothing to do with malfunctions or the lightning or the syntech; that had been a true, Godzilla-style blast of fire.

It all fitted together now. The fire breath, the roar, the way Godzilla acted around him... All of them were a result of the bones used in the machine's very construction. However, Alan was certain that the Utah Foundation had ended up doing far more than perhaps even they could've anticipated by using those bones. He finally decided to say the one answer that was going through his mind. He was intensely weary, drained in both mind and body. Perhaps it would be some comfort to his mind to say out loud what he now knew, if only to put his own mind at ease.

"Kiryuu is-"

As he said this, he was interrupted by the shrill ringing coming from his cellphone. Alan jumped as he heard it; he had been so engrossed in the press conference and all of the truths he had learned that such a sound seemed to bring him back to his senses.

He picked up his mobile from the bedside table and answered. He didn't even get to answer when he heard Shinoda's excited voice on the other end. Indeed, Shinoda sounded like Christmas had come early.

_"Alan! Are you seeing the Utah Foundation press conference?! I don't believe it! That plasma breath and the spines!"_

"Shinoda-" Alan tried to say, but his voice was drowned out by Shinoda's ravings.

_"Alan!"_ he continued, _"It's the original!!! The Utah Foundation didn't just use the bones! Kiryuu isn't just a mech that uses the bones of the original Gojira! He is the original Gojira! The spines lit up and he breathed plasma! You know as well as I do that only happens with a genuine fire blast! He's the original Gojira, Alan! He just has to be!"_

"Shinoda-" Alan said, now starting to get increasingly annoyed with Shinoda just stating what he knew.

_"I mean,"_ Shinoda continued in that same over-excited tone, _"I'd heard from you of all the strange things he did, and of all the photos you showed me! Now we know the whole truth! Kiryuu's the original Gojira! That's why the current Gojira acts strangely around him! It's the only possible explanation! Kiryuu is Gojira's real father-"_

"I know, Shinoda!" Alan yelled down the phone. He'd had enough of Shinoda's ramblings. This wasn't wonderful, or even pleasant; it was horrible. The Utah Foundation had gone and done the unthinkable with what they had done to Kiryuu, and right now Shinoda was talking about it like a kid that had found its dad's gun.

"I know..." he said, trying to calm down, but his voice still shaking with unfathomable anger, "I don't want to believe it, but I know. Now do me a favour and don't phone me for a while!"

There was nothing but awkward silence after that. Alan had cut Shinoda deep, and he knew it. Right at this minute though, he didn't care. He wanted to set Shinoda straight, stop him from becoming one of those reckless scientists, like at the Utah Foundation. On the TV, the press conference had stopped shortly; there was a notice stating 'Technical difficulties. Please stand by."

_"I..."_ Shinoda stammered, now knocked out of his frenzied high. _"I'm sorry... I called at a bad time... I'll talk to you when you get back to Japan..."_

With that, he hung up. Alan slammed his phone down onto the bed, he was so angry. The phone bounced off the bed and fell onto the floor.

Alan held his head in his hands. What had he done? Shinoda hadn't asked for that, and right now he was the only person Alan could trust. How could he just throw that trust away like that?! He doubted Shinoda would want to speak to him again without risking making him this mad. Alan was now physically shaking. All that he had learned about Kiryuu was now buzzing through his head. Shinoda was right, and Alan forced himself to admit it.

Kiryuu was the original Godzilla; the one who had died back in 1954, the father of the current Godzilla. There was no possible doubt. The very moment Kiryuu had fired that plasma breath, or perhaps even long before then, perhaps even the moment the bones had been used as the frame to support the cybernetic shell, the first Godzilla had truly been reborn. Alan could scarcely believe his own mind, and the evidence right before his eyes.

On the TV screen, the press conference was now being displayed again.

_"Mr. Knight,"_ began another reporter. _"What are your views about the Monster Zero attack on London?"_

Alan jumped slightly. A reporter from the BBC! Nobody else could possibly have mentioned the Monster Zero attack without mentioning the word 'hoax'. Alan knew he could place a bet on Knight's reply though, and he was proven right.

_"No monster attacked London,"_ replied Gordon. _"It was terrorists. You were trying to use a monster attack as an escape goat for getting caught with your pants down. Everybody knows that."_

_"That is what the United States' government keeps telling the world,"_ the reporter protested. _"But a monster did attack England. If Monster Zero returns, will your Kiryuu fight it?"_

_"If Monster Zero exists,"_ shrugged Gordon. _"Yeah, Kiryuu would give it a good beating." _

That's what Alan thought he would say. It made his blood boil, all of the lies the American government had given to cover up the horrifying events that had come so close to completely destroying England two years ago. Using monsters as a scapegoat indeed... The rest of the world had quarantined England on that day, left them all to die, all because they were too spineless to do anything to try to help without alerting the public to the presence of monsters other than Godzilla. They wanted to destroy Godzilla only, and England, a country that until that point had not paid much attention to Godzilla at all, had very nearly paid the ultimate price for such near-sightedness. Even if Kiryuu had been completed in time for the attack, would the Americans really have let him go after the three-headed dragon that the press had called Monster Zero? Alan highly doubted it.

Alan snarled under his breath. The conference ended shortly after that, so he stopped the tape recorder and switched off the TV. He felt he had more than enough footage archived, especially now that he knew the truth about the machine that had haunted his thoughts and dreams for months. He sat, quiet for a long time after that, only glancing out of the window occasionally. He hardly moved, even until the sun started to sink over the horizon. He had been turning over so many things in his head; the truth about Kiryuu, the lies the Americans were using to cover up the Monster Zero attack... He was sick of it all. Tired of all the lies and deceit that he had to face all the time. Tomorrow he'd be starting his journey back up north.

He pulled out his camera, and brought up the photo of Kiryuu that he had taken at the Panama Canal only three days ago. Kiryuu's face stared out of the screen at him, the bio-syntech 'hair' flapping about in the wind, the eyes; the very same eyes Alan had in his own head, staring out with a resolute expression. It was a rather sinister expression, now that he thought about it.

Alan closed his eyes. All this time he had hated Kiryuu, seen him as nothing more than an amalgamation of everything he hated about the American government and their deceitfulness. Now though, how could he possibly hate a creature that was just as much a victim of that recklessness and deceit as he was? He slowly turned his head to look back out of the window, as the room grew dark around him as the sun set. His eyes were narrowed, the slit pupils of his gold eyes now seemingly burning with a new rage; a new mania.

He had made his mind up. It was time that the Utah Foundation were made aware that someone knew the truth about Kiryuu, that someone had seen through the deceptions and lies. It was time to send them a message.


End file.
